ArtSurround Projects
This page is a listing of works produced through the ArtSurround program, a placemaking and public art initiative. Click on the images on the left of each artist and advocate pairing to learn more about each artist, or click HERE to learn more about the ArtSurround Training and Grant.
2022-2023
Zyssa Morales + Bodega Bay
Artist Zyssa Morales has transformed The Sea Flower Cafe’s outdoor seating area with her mural, "Sonoma Coast". "Sonoma Coast" is now on display at the Sea Flower Cafe in Bodega Bay. The map mural includes all of the beaches, trails, parks, and campgrounds from Jenner highlands to just past Doran beach. The map also includes paintings of Sonoma's cost wildlife, sea animals, and land and watersports.
Dani Burlison + Santa Rosa
Artist Dani Burlison's project "Ancestors of Place" is a compilation of ten interviews with a variety of Sonoma County residents examining personal experience with community, land, connection to ancestors, and belonging. The chapbook also includes writing prompts and conversation topics for people to reflect on who gets to live here.
Kristen Throop + Downtown Santa Rosa
Kristen Throop's project “Claiming Justice | on the Trail of Local Stories" is on display for all to experience throughout the Downtown Santa Rosa area. "Claiming Justice" is a public art walk that honors 14 local activists, both past and present. Bring your phone and scan the QR code on the 12 sidewalk markers that stretch from Sonoma Avenue to College Avenue to hear audio of each activist honored.
Becky White + Helen Putnam Plaza Petaluma
Becky White's project “Becoming | Remembering" was installed at Helen Putnam Plaza on Oct. 21! Becoming | Remembering, a multi-media installation, features original music from White's band FIREKEEPER, and videography that explores the natural history and ecology of Sonoma County, the human history of the area, and highlights White's emotional landscape through her personal journey of healing and transformation as a mother and artist.
Mirka Knaster + Geyserville Sculpture Trail
Mirka Knaster's project “Wheels for Peace" highlights peace as something we all hope for. The word “Peace” was written in nearly 90 languages on the laminated ends of strips attached to bicycle wheels, everything from Afrikaans to Zulu. The reverse side indicates which language the word or expression comes from. The wheels serve to welcome regional and international visitors and are now installed at the Geyserville Sculpture Trail!
Katie Marie Nealon + Geyserville Sculpture Trail
#ArtSurround Artist Katie Nealon's “The Brave Butterflies Project” looks at the concept of being brave in our society. Students within the Geyserville School District received a workbook to examine their relationship to this word, followed by a metal butterfly to paint. The Brave Butterflies sculpture installation consists of 210 painted metal butterflies flying free on the Geyserville Sculpture Trail now!
Barbie Watts + Santa Rosa City Hall
Art meets function in #ArtSurround Artist Barbie Watts' project "Art for Water from Air" installed in front of Santa Rosa City Hall. Barbie Watts’s fluid, movable sculptures are designed & built with ideas & materials used in atmospheric water collectors, also known as a “dew collectors”.
Julian Billotte and Anna Wiziarde + Santa Rosa City Hall
"Rosa Californica" is a botanical line drawing in 23kt gold of a Native California Rose by #ArtSurround Artists Julian Billotte and Anna Wiziarde! The Rose is on both sides of the central concrete wall/tower in the courtyard of Santa Rosa City Hall and is visible when in the courtyard and from Santa Rosa Avenue! Look over when driving past to see this beauty 🙂
Sara Downing + Putnam Plaza (Petaluma)
Sara Downing's temporary kinetic art installation "VISUALIZARch" is now on display in Petaluma’s Putnam Plaza Park through July! VISUALIZARch is the culmination of a multi-phase project, beginning with a series of sessions with Petaluma residents in the plaza titled "I am Petaluma" which included photo sessions, gathering or written intentions, desires, and observations from participating community residents. Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Nicole Jones + Escolar (Santa Rosa)
Nicole Jones' project "California Native Food Garden" was installed at Escolar in May – the garden focused on community engagement and exploring the ideas of urban-indigenous food spaces. Nicole held two community engagement activities where she gifted plants to participants and provided sketchbooks as part of a plant/nature sketching workshop. The project goal was to bring awareness to Sonoma County's indigenous plant foods. Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Ann Weber + Town of Windsor (Windsor)
Ann Weber's project "Art Under the Oaks" is a public art installation near the Town Green in Windsor. The community submitted photographs that exemplify what makes Windsor a great place to live, work and play! The gallery of images are displayed along Old Redwood Highway, north of the Bell Village Shopping Center (Oliver's), through November 2023.
Susan Bercu + Putnam Plaza (Petaluma)
Susan Bercu's “Cast-Offs” Streamers were installed on tree branches in Putnam Plaza in Petaluma. The community contributed their household discards to use in constructing the streamers. Various rope and clothesline remnants are adorned with plastic and metal waste such as water bottles, plastic toys, food packaging and parts from dismantled hard drives! Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Niki Wildflower + Sonoma Community Center (Sonoma)
Niki Wildflower hosted 6 recycling and art making events to bring environmental awareness to young people in after school programs held at Sonoma Community Center. Youth created art from the recycled materials and the sculptures were installed in front of the Center in February 2023.
Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Patricia Bailey + River Arts (Guerneville)
Patricia Bailey led a team of artists who painted storefront windows for the 2022 Holidays along the downtown Guerneville merchant corridor.
Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Kelly Gray + Pepperwood Preserve (Santa Rosa)
Kelly Gray worked with seven local writers with her writing workshop "Writing Eco-Grief into Resiliency." She and her fellow writers gave a poetry reading at Pepperwood Preserve in December 2022.
Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Michelle Hirsch + Pepperwood Preserve (Santa Rosa)
Artist Michelle Hirsch created "Healing and Emergence", a mixed media installation using found materials, on display at Pepperwood Preserve beginning in late Fall 2022. "My intent is to capture the essence of the Preserve by way of material and text", says Michelle.
Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Jane Ingram Allen + Pepperwood Preserve (Santa Rosa)
Artist Jane Ingram Allen installed Living Leaf at Pepperwood Preserve during Fall 2022. Living Leaf is handmade paper infused with seeds of Native wild grasses and wildflowers that will grow and transform over time.
Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Aim Hover + Sonoma Community Center (Sonoma)
Artist Aim Hover installed “What Brings You Joy” at Sonoma Community Center! Hundreds of Sonoma Valley community members of all ages illustrated their response to the question, “What brings you joy / ¿Qué te trae alegría?” The collection of art is displayed on two seventeen-foot tall banners on the front of the Sonoma Community Center during winter 2023.
Click on photo to learn more about the artist.
Kenny Simeone + Pepperwood Preserve (Santa Rosa)
In his project "The Sounds of Nature" #ArtSurround Artist Kenny Simeone created an original instrumental composition designed to enhance the new artwork at the Pepperwood Preserve, focusing on the intersection of art and the environment. Listen to his beautiful piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR6XajWLLU0.
Click on photo to learn more about the artist.