Broward’s bridges becoming venues for public art displays
HALLANDALE BEACH — The giant mahi-mahi, looming large in swirls of yellow and green, will never have his day in the sun.
Neither bikini.
Instead, a manatee and her calf, painted in grays and greens, will greet drivers making their way south on A1A or east on Hallandale Beach Boulevard toward the beach.
They will be part of a mural — a $34,000 public art initiative with flowing blue waves — gracing the western wall of the Hallandale Beach Boulevard Bridge.
Murals are also coming to Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Sunrise, Davie, Oakland Park, Miramar, Plantation and Tamarac, all commissioned by Broward County in honor of its 100th birthday. The artists have been given a deadline of Oct. 1.
Eduardo Mendieta, the artist creating the mural for Hallandale Beach, delivered up several concepts, but only two made it to city commissioners for a public vetting.
He was treated to a glimpse into the not-always-pretty process of how public art is selected by a committee of non-artists.
The city manager’s office nixed the bikini idea before it got to commissioners. And the mayor didn’t care for the fish.
“I do not like the fish at all,” Mayor Joy Cooper told the artist during a recent meeting. “I don’t want to turn that corner every day and just see a fish.”
City Commissioner Bill in.
“I’d like you to come back with a different fish — or a manatee,” Julian said.
“Less is more,” offered Cooper, who preferred no creature at all.
Ignoring her, City Commissioner Keith London popped in with his own idea: “Hey, can we have a manatee cow with a pup?”
“I like the baby manatee!” Julian gushed. “I like the mama and the kid!”
Mendieta, a veteran artist whose work has appeared in Indianapolis, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, is used to cri-
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“I’m biased, but I thought it was a quite nice fish,” he said. “You’re designing by committee. I had to chuckle at the whole thing. Everyone is a critic. I take it all in stride.”
Public art is known to generate controversy, and Hallandale Beach is no different.
“Everybody’s a Picasso up here,” quipped City Commissioner Michele Lazarow, adding she didn’t want to tell the artist how to create his art.
The mayor mentioned pleasing everyone.
“Art is a very personal thing,” “And it’s very difficult when you public.” Lazarow expects there to be gripes. “We are going to catch flak one way or the other,” she said. “They’re going to love it. They’re going to hate it. We’re going to hear about it either way.”
But Cooper thinks most residents will be delighted to learn the mural will cover the garish salmon hue the bridge was painted a few years ago.
The ugly color created a furor, with residents pelting City Hall with complaint after complaint.
The offensive hue will remain on the east side of the bridge, but city officials hope to
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Painting of the west side may begin as soon as mid-August, after the state Department of Transportation grants approval. City Hall plans an unveiling party when the mural is completed in mid-September.
Woven into the design will be words — think love, peace, harmony — submitted by the community.
Hallandale is kicking in $10,000 to cover the cost of the mural, which won a $24,000 grant from the county.
Resident Flora Fox panned the design, telling officials she did not like the graffiti style.
“We’re not in Wynwood,” she said. “Residents who live within view of the bridge have paid millions for their condos.”
Fellow resident Jerry Jensen, former executive director of the Wichita Center for the Arts, praised the design as a thing of beauty.
But someone else differently, he said.
“That’s the nature of art,” Jensen said. “People love this, they don’t like that. Some people are going to ask why they didn’t put a fish there instead of the manatee.”
sbryan@tribpub.com or 954-356-4554
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