Mary Davis Wallace talks about her proposed Public Art Plan for the city

After 18 months of work, Sarasota Senior Planner Mary Davis Wallace will unveil her proposed Public Arts Plan for the city during an open house on Wednesday, May 3. Beginning her career in landscape design and personal gardening, she moved here in 2005, returning to her native North Carolina during the recession, where she lived in the Raleigh-Durham area.

“That's where my career really took off in terms of public art because it's absolutely prolific in other parts of the country, and in North Carolina, everywhere you go there is a public art program,” Wallace said.

Armed with a few years of experience running a nonprofit art organization in Cary, North Carolina, she returned to Sarasota in 2017, joining Sarasota County government as planner and project manager. When the position of senior planner and public art program lead opened in February 2021, she said it felt serendipitous and jumped at the opportunity.

Now ready to go public with the city’s Public Art Plan, which must be formally adopted by the City Commission later this year, she spoke with the Observer about why the guiding document was needed and how it came about.

What was the state of the public art program when you came to the city?

This program was only within the boundaries of the downtown. It was part of the original downtown Community Development Agency, which has since sunset. I saw an abundance of public art opportunity and abundance of space and places for people to gather and ponder and look at really great art, but I also saw a lot of static sculptures. So one of the things I thought would be great for this program, even before I knew I was going to hold this position, was we should really do more interactive experiences for people. My assessment was really positive, but I also saw where we have room for improvement.

What are some examples of interactive art?

It can be a poem on the ground because that means you’re stopping, you're looking, you're reading, you're taking a breath, and maybe for a minute you're forgetting what you're doing because you're involved with that piece. It can also be a kinetic sculpture that moves. It can be a mural that you stand in front of to take a photo. It can also be art that you walk into, or that you walk around.

Why have a public art plan?

The thinking behind the why happened before I got here with the Public Art Committee, the City Commission and a lot of people in the administration who were saying we could use a plan for the public art program. They were seeing other cities putting out public art plans, getting a lot of great ideas and building whole programs around a plan. There was a desire for the plan, but they weren't quite sure how they were going to get this plan done.

What is the advantage of having a staff member write the plan as opposed to hiring a team of consultants?

What happens is those consultants come in, they assess the program at whatever value they can provide to you, then they usually leave. I think it was really fortunate that they could find somebody who was local to be able to do this, and who also is a member of staff. What I've done is I've really thought about my city and the people who live in my city. Every step of the way, every page has been thought through as how I would want to see my city's public art program as a citizen, but also from a planning perspective. It was a lot of work, but I think it really, created a special bond between the author and the people who are going to be experiencing it.

Why does something like this take 18 months to develop?

I'm big on public engagement and it has been a real small group of people who have helped me with this. Now 18 months ago, we were still going through post-COVID so we were averse to having any in-person meetings, so I did have three Zoom community meetings in 2021. These meetings took a lot of time in terms of scheduling, promoting, getting people to show up, and then really going through all of the feedback that I received. We also did a survey and we had almost 800 people respond. We needed to have time to cover all of the comments from the survey and from all the public engagement meetings, and then I took the pre-plan on the road and spoke to community groups and some neighborhood groups, and that takes a lot of time. 

Plus the whole time I was running the program and working with the Public Art Committee on the art in the roundabouts. This actually felt like a second job, but it was worth it.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

What will the plan accomplish going forward?

The plan really provides a framework. A public art program can exist without a plan, and many programs do simply because it's not something that they are able to afford or they don't have the staff to be able to execute. You want the plan to be dynamic and you want the plan to be executed, so a plan is really a commitment by our city leaders, our administration, our elected officials and our citizens to elevate the program. 

How is public art funded?

We're exclusively funded through the developer fee, which is currently half of 1% of the cost of new development of at least $1 million. The development community support has been actually overwhelmingly positive. We do want to continue to work with the development community and we do want to continue that being our source of funding. However, the plan does propose other sources for more opportunities. One common source of funding in a lot of other municipalities is a percentage of the capital improvement program. However, for me it's more about taking some small steps.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

Is the current level of funding from new development adequate to support the plan?

We're proposing to increase that in our program to 1%. We really want to be able to put our money where our mouth is and say if we want this to succeed, we're really going to need the increased funding so that we can start executing some of these new programs.

Do you sense community support for taxpayer funding for public art?

I feel like there is there will be support for us broadening our sources for funding so that we can start doing some bigger projects because good art isn't cheap. We want to really keep the quality of our artwork high in our city and we want to be able to spend good money for good art.

Art is subjective and public art can be a lightning rod. How does it feel to be in that hot seat?

Well, it's a warm seat. I am personally an outward facing-type of public servant. I want to be accessible. I want people to be able to call to discuss things with me. I've spent hours of my life on the phone, talking about these things with people. That is an educational service that I feel like it's part of my job that I provide.