The Seattle Public Library board of trustees has selected artist Marita Dingus to design artwork for the 6,992-square-foot expansion of the Douglass-Truth Library, 2300 E. Yesler Way. The Library Board unanimously confirmed the Auburn mixed-media artist for the project at the board's Oct. 23 meeting.
The six-member Douglass-Truth Library Artist Advisory Panel - made up of representatives from the Library, the Seattle Arts Commission, the design team and the community - recommended Dingus for the job.
Dingus creates work from discarded materials, including bottle caps, aluminum cans, thread spools, and other found objects.
Lisa Richmond, Seattle Arts Commission project manager, said Dingus' work has an "immediate aesthetic appeal. It is colorful and lively. It also has an impressive depth of content dealing with history and cultural identity from her perspective as an African-American, but with a universality that will speak to the varied experiences of the Central District's diverse population."
The advisory panel was impressed with Dingus' combination of approachability and depth, and thought her sensitivity to cultural identity would be an asset among Douglass-Truth Library's diverse group of users. Dingus, who for 25 years has taught art to children at school workshops and museums, often involves members of the community in fabricating her work.
Her public work includes a collaborative effort among four artists to create artwork for the Bitter Lake, Delridge, Garfield, Meadowbrook and Rainier community centers in Seattle. She also was among four artists to integrate artwork into the remodeled Franklin High School.
The panel recommended Dingus after interviewing three artists from a roster of public artists that the Arts Commission compiled for branch library projects. The commission, a city agency formed in 1971 to increase public awareness of and support for the arts, is managing the library's public art program.
The 8,008-square-foot Douglass-Truth Library opened in 1914. Though the library was upgraded in 1986, it is too small to serve the neighborhood or to adequately house the library's growing African-American Collection. The expanded library, which is being designed by Schacht/Aslani Architects, will be 15,000 square feet.
The $3.5 million expansion project will feature an updated collection of 66,700 books and materials, more space for the African-American Collection, a new children's area, more seating, computers and parking, larger and more efficient staff work areas, upgraded electrical, mechanical and ventilation systems, and energy efficient windows. The expansion is scheduled to be finished in 2003. The art budget is $43,050.
The project is part of the $196.4 million "Libraries for All" bond measure that Seattle voters passed in 1998. The plan calls for improving or replacing all 22 branch libraries, building five new branches and building a new central library. For more information about Libraries for All, visit the Library's Web site at www.spl.org and select "Libraries for All capital projects."
(For more information, call Caroline Young Ullmann, communications assistant, at 206-615-1627.)
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Content modified: 29 October 2001
12/30/2005
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