“The word that came up most often was ‘community,’ and that felt good,” Culver City’s Artist Laureate Katy Krantz smiled as she looked to the inner courtyard at City Hall. The space is now the site of “Dear Culver City…” a community-created (and artist designed) installation of thousands of ceramic pieces that will be on display for the next two months.
Created though a series of workshops, Krantz gathered people at local parks, the Senior Center, Village Well Books and other spaces to impress words into clay, and create shapes and small faces to be the design for the artwork. More than a thousand community members participated, and the results are eye-catching, and heart warming.
Krantz provided the clay, and offered simple instructions on designing the small shapes, and impressing the words into the clay. It was up to the participants as to what words they chose.
The ceramics, which are strung on steel cables through the spaces of the decorative screen enclosing the inner courtyard, were also glazed by community members, with Krantz providing the colors and doing the work of firing them in a kiln.
An official opening ceremony on April 16, 2024 in the outer courtyard at City Hall included readings from the poets who contributed to the commemorative book, “Dear Culver City…” and of course, a poem from the city’s previous Laureate, Dr. Janet Cameron Hoult.
After the installation concludes in June of this year, Krantz will announce where people can come to claim the ceramic pieces that they made, if they would like to have them to keep.
Judith Martin-Straw
