Artwork takes center stage along Atlantic

Pompano Beach is wearing its art out — and the spectacle is just beginning along a road known more for whizzing cars.

Twelve painted pompanos now in a semicircle in front of the city’s Cultural Center on Atlantic Boulevard are going to be on exhibit throughout April.

It shouldn’t be long after this new school “swims” off to locations around the city — including Alsdorf Park and the City Commission Chambers — that Atlantic Boulevard will be getting more art buzz in the form of a mosaic depicting honeybees. “The Trail of the Honeybees” will stretch from a city facility near the Interstate 95 exchange about a mile east to the Bailey Contemporary Arts Center, 41 NE First St.

The brightly colored mosaic of glass and ceramic

will be visible to motorists on Atlantic Boulevard, but also will invite people to stop and have a closer look, said Sonata Kazimieraitiene, the artist managing the project.

“It’s a trail you would walk from one building to another,” Kazimieraitiene said, explaining that it’s going to connect public works of art and take pedestrians on something like an artistic scavenger hunt.

For decades, Pompano has been searching for a way to unify the disparate elements of the city’s beachside with its northwest section. And since 2012, it has been trying to cultivate a reputation as an arts destination to do that.

The first school of fish sculptures were sent off in 2015 and now can be found along the walkway on State Road A1A and the Ali Cultural Arts building, 353 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The art effort got a $100,000 boost from the National Endowment for the Arts last year that was matched with $80,000 from the city and $160,000 from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

The money will be aimed at cultivating a stretch of Atlantic Boulevard. But Friday morning, people were finding a reason to stop and take a closer look at the fish in front of the Cultural Center, 50 W. Atlantic Blvd.

Nadia Augustin was with 2-year-old Devan Wilson at the Cultural Center’s county library. She said he started tapping at the window and saying “fish.”

“I guessed we better go,” she said, chuckling as he ran to each one.

He pointed at his favorite — one of the most colorful. Artist Missy Pierce, of Boca Raton, was inspired by the Dada art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, she said.

“It’s not just about being a beautiful display of color,” she said. “It also depicts the guts, bacteria and other parts of the innards of the fish.”

Fans of Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” will also recognize a fish done in the artist’s style. And there’s a fish that appears inspired by comic book art.

Paulyne Charron, a snowbird from northern Ontario, pulled over with her fellow travelers for a closer look. The quartet pulled out tablets and cellphones to memorialize their visit.

“I’m very impressed,” Charron said, noting that her hometown Winnipeg features public art sculptures of polar bears in much the same way. “I think it’s great for the community.”