PUBLIC ART COMING DOWN AS BOYNTON RENOVATES

BOYNTON BEACH — With the city’s $250 million Town Square redevelopment project underway, buildings within the 16-acre construction zone between Seacrest Boulevard and Southeast First Street are quickly being emptied.

Among the items going — more than 100 pieces of public art.

And while the city’s departments are relocating to other buildings for the two years of Town Square construction, the city’s art works will be placed into storage.

The process of removing some of the work has already started in City Hall.

Tom Brewitz, who created a piece of kinetic art hanging from the ceiling in City Hall, was there Tuesday trying to figure out the best way to take down his piece.

And even though the work of art is owned by the city, Brewitz said he considers the piece one of his children.

“I like to follow them wherever they go,” he said.

Brewitz will at least know where his piece will be for the next two years, and said he would be back see it in place in the new City Hall.

Town Square calls for a new fire station, an amphitheater, the historic high school to become a cultural center with an auditorium, parking garages, apartments, retail space, a hotel and an off-site police headquarters.

Debby Coles-Dobay, the public art manager for Boynton Beach, said that even though more than 100 pieces will be added to storage, including five large sculptures, “there is still plenty of art to see in the city.”

“We have 81 public artworks throughout the city,” she said. “We have a pretty aggressive program.”

Coles-Dobay added that there’s something for art lovers in every corner of the city:

■ In East Boynton, along East Ocean Avenue, is an exhibition of statues by artist Albert Paley. The six giant metal statues start in front of City Hall and end in front of the 500 Ocean Apartments. While five of the pieces are scheduled for removal in September, the one in front of 500 Ocean is a permanent installation. At more than 40 feet tall, the piece, titled Cavalcade, is the tallest sculpture in Palm Beach County.

■ West of Boynton, in the Boynton Town Center off Congress Avenue, are three works dedicated to the area’s original inhabitants — wild horses. “The Last Pasture” and “Waterhole #3” feature sculptures of horses in their natural environments, while “Eight Horses” is a larger-than-life mural that covers one side of Michaels.

■ And in the southern part of town, there are two large, stainless steel marlin, titled “Gulfstream,” at the corner of Southeast 36th Avenue and North Federal Highway. Also, an ecological art piece on the west side of the Seabourn Cove Apartments, along Old Dixie Highway, features more than 60 native plants that help attract Monarch butterflies.

“There really is something for everybody,” Coles-Dobay said.

For a more extensive list of public art in Boynton Beach, visit BoyntonBeachArts.org.