Mountain View adopts long-anticipated public art plan

Mountain View has more than 100 public art installations, with the vast majority concentrated in parks and on corporate campuses. The City Council is looking to change that, adopting a plan to expand opportunities for public art so that it is better distributed across the city. Councilmembers on Oct. 27 voted unanimously, with Councilmember Pat Showalter absent, to approve a new framework to guide processes and policies for establishing and maintaining public art in Mountain View. To implement the plan, the city created a new public art administrator position as part of its budget cycle earlier this year. The job was filled last month. “I’m just really excited that we finally have a public arts administrator,” Councilmember Alison Hicks said at the meeting. “Somebody absolutely dedicated to it.” The nearly 150-page document lays out Mountain View’s strategy for a “community-driven” public art program. It identifies two main goals: expanding public art opportunities and modernizing poli