Paint The Town Redding with Danny Orloff.wav
Steve
I'm Katie and I'm Steve, and this is the City of Redding podcast.
Katie
Welcome to today's episode where we explore how public art is helping enrich our local community. We'll dive into Redding's growing mural and art installation scene with Danny Orloff. Danny is the marketing director for visit Redding. But his role in the public art scene is with a local nonprofit group.
Steve
How are these creative projects chosen? What's the strategy behind them and how are they shaping the city's identity? Danny will share the process, vision and impact of bringing public art to life in Redding.
Danny
Hey, I'm Danny Orloff, an art enthusiast, also a tourism marketing director for Visit Redding.
Katie
Hello, Danny. Thank you for being on the podcast today. Um, you do several things in the community, but one of the things that you're more recently involved with is the Art and Public Places Committee for the City of Redding, and just kind of some of these new murals that have been popping up around town. You're kind of the the man behind those making some moves and making things happen. So we wanted to bring you on to talk about that. So maybe you could just start with giving us a high level overview of what you have been doing with the murals, like what's what's been your role with some of the newer murals in town and your passion behind that?
Danny
Definitely, definitely. So I'm an individual who just loves art overall, and I love our community. What's kind of happened over the last few years is so technically I work for visit Redding, which is under the Redding Chamber of Commerce, and they have a nonprofit foundation called the Ford Redding Foundation, which is a 500 1C3, and it's been great to work with them. So we essentially started Paint the Town Redding and paint the Town Redding is an initiative of beautifying our city and connecting those who love art to those who are artists, and for people to see it and enjoy it. Some of my goals are just to be able to turn the city into an outdoor art gallery, and how that's happened is being able to leverage visit Redding and the connections through there, but also people in the community who want to see art. So it's been it's been really awesome to be able to be an artist myself, but also connect artists who are doing the the large scale murals with people who want them on the building or people who want to see them.
Steve
And Danny, maybe we can talk a little bit about the process behind this. I'm assuming that there's, as you mentioned, there's community partners and stakeholders and others that that are involved in this process. So if someone is either interested in learning more about potentially, you know, getting a mural somewhere in town on their, on their building or painting one themselves or whatever that might look like, what is the process behind that? Who do they connect with and how do those decisions get made?
Danny
Yeah, definitely. So there's an Art in Public Places group, and it's a committee and it's through the city of Redding, and it's also through their permitting process. Originally, if you wanted a mural on your wall, you would go down to the permit center in the city of Redding and you would go and request a permit. It was almost $1,000 just to get a permit to to get a mural on your building, since it was technically under a signed permit. Kim Zimmer was a big advocate in getting an Art and public Places committee together, and essentially because the committee, it dropped the fee to $50. If you want a mural. A lot of it's just through the review process. So this Art in Public Places committee really focuses on making sure the the art is isn't derogatory or doesn't have anything that's discriminating. They also want to make sure that we have multiple different styles of art that represent our city. So initially you would get through the permit center, but now it's it's caused the fees to drop over $850 just to the $50 to get a permit. But once you if you want to want a mural, essentially you go in and you put in your mock design onto the permit center and they would send it over to the art committee, they would hold a meeting, they would review through a checklist and see that it meets the criteria to make sure that this is what is allowed in the city. And from there, they'll approve it back to the permit center, and they'll approach the person who submitted the permit and approve or deny the the submission. Um, it has been extremely simple so far. Uh, I believe in the fact that the committee is very well rounded. Um, we have architects, we have chefs, County arts director, we have Viva downtown representatives, we have the cultural district representatives, city of Redding artists. And the group is very well rounded. So it's been a relief to alleviate the the stress from the permit center and be able to lower that price and have a cool, cool group together.
Katie
And it's important to note too, that like people may not know that you actually do need a permit to do a mural on your wall. Even if you own the building, you can't just go out and paint your own mural on the wall. And because it's a public space and because it's public art, you do have to actually get these things permitted.
Danny
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. And I think a lot of people fall into that where it's like, oh, it's it's my building. I own the building. I can put whatever on the wall and it's typically going to be over 300ft². So a very large mural.
Steve
And within that Art in Public Places Committee, what is the the overarching strategy behind incorporating public art into the community? Is it you know, again, we've we've seen a number of murals specifically pop up in the downtown and downtown adjacent area over the past few years. Is there strategy to ensure that you know that we're not, I guess, having too many murals or can you have too many? I mean, I think I think, you know, murals and artwork and communities is becoming quite popular and great photo opportunities and a really way to highlight some of the culture and arts. Obviously in our community is there. What is the strategy behind that when approving or denying those requests?
Danny
Definitely so right now. So the checklist would consist of what is the mood, the feeling, the message or symbolism of the piece. Does it have a company name or logo on there. So is there any indirect advertisement? Are there windows affiliated with the mural or does it go around the windows or how does that look? Does it actually protrude out of the building of the facade. So like is it maybe a sculpture to it? Are there going to be an anti-graffiti resistant paint on there? Is it on a decorative block? What is the architecture of the building? So you're not painting a mural over an a historic piece or a historic building? Also, is it going to be on multiple walls? But overall, I think that the process is there. I don't know if there's too many murals or it can be too many murals. I do think that there needs to be a well rounded ness of art that represents the community, whether that's in sculpture, whether that's in digital art, that's maybe projected on a building or things like that. How do we maintain the like the beauty, the beauty of the city and not make it into like a graffiti alley looking feel of the city? So I think we're also mindful of that. What is the balance look like in certain areas as well?
Katie
Okay. And then so speaking of balance and art styles, like once you get through the permitting process and you get kind of through the committee, which I don't know, maybe this question is backwards because you have to actually have the artist online first before you go through the committee. But what is your personal like? How do you select the artists that you've been working with so far, and what do you look for in their artwork? Or what do you look for in even the building you're selecting? Do building owners come to you with a building that's open, or do you actually go out and search? What building would be nice or what would look nice?
Danny
Yeah. So I think there's that's a going to be a loaded question I can tell already, but it's the it's the beauty and the fun of it all. I think at least in my process. And I feel like everyone's process is going to be different. It's really cool to be able to be involved in these murals and see how the How the evolution over these last few years has happened. And and one of the murals that we did was the Welcome to Redding mural. And when we were looking at doing that mural in particular, that one was identifying the wall. It's a high traffic area. Um, being one of the cultural districts, we noticed it's an entrance into our downtown. Uh, so thinking about that and thinking about how are they going to feel once they see the art. And when I'm working with visit Redding and our steering committee and things like that. It's like, number one, we want women to feel safe when they enter in downtown. So that was a big piece of it. And it was a female artist who did the piece. Her name is Stephanie Lynn, and she's a muralist and illustrator. And her style for that wall in particular was very welcoming and very easy to look at and easy to understand. There's elements of somebody riding their bike. There's fish elements to represent the river. There's the Sundial Bridge and the trees and the local flowers around our area. So it was very I don't want to overly say, but very welcoming. And so that piece was really strategic on finding someone who could do it of that magnitude and the scale. I think scale is is a big portion for for these murals and these types of pieces of art is we might be able to do something on a sketchbook, or you might be able to do something very small.
Danny
But what about to the size of the Cascade Theater, the back of that, or on a bank on the side of their wall that's, you know, 400ft² plus? So my process has kind of been finding which piece of the three that you can get Ahold of first, whether the first one is funding, whether the second one is permission from the property owner or the third one is an artist who's eager to to paint. It seems like each any one of those three can come first. Typically what I've noticed has been the easiest is the building owners saying yes, they would like one. Having an artist lined up and then securing funding or securing funding would probably be the first step actually, because then you know, you're going to pay for the artist and they could do renditions and then getting the sign off on the building owner. So, for example, I wasn't really involved in the forward Redding mural, the one that's on Taroko. It's also called huddle, the mural, Telmo Miel, uh, two different artists, but, they go by Telmo Miel. So that one I know the artist was selected, the funding was selected, and then the building owner was the last step. So they had a few different thoughts on the art piece itself. So, uh, that one was a little bit different, where the welcome to Redding one was, we found the wall, got that approved, and then the artwork came next. And then, uh, the funding came right afterwards. So hopefully that answered some of the questions so far.
Katie
I had a follow up to that, which is what's your perspective when you're selecting artists in either choosing somebody who's local or choosing somebody who's outside the area? We've heard some pushback from people who say that the artists should always be local, and that it shouldn't be an outside artist. What's your perspective on that local?
Danny
First, I think local comes first, but I do feel like there needs to be a blend. And as we have a lot of great artists that are local for us or for my perspective on with Paint the Town, Redding and those who've been involved in it is we want to make sure that we're bringing in people outside of the area to visit our city, to help our city grow, to help it, to feel, uh, very engaging and inspiring. And I think sometimes when you pull in someone from outside the area to add to the culture of things that we have in our area, it's only going to draw more people in here to want to check out their art. When you get someone who's nationally acclaimed, that's an artist. I think it adds a whole nother element to to the city. So if you look at the piece, like I personally don't know, an artist in town, there's so many great artists, but I don't know any artists in town that could do that scale and with that style that they do and that are that well recognized around the globe. Um, on my Instagram or Pinterest feed, uh, there's like art galleries or graffiti galleries and they're getting recognized on those platforms on a national level. So I think if you can do local first, always do local first. But if you're looking for a specific style, a specific thing, and maybe it's what that artist does, then maybe it is time to bring in them. But I think it's always, always about that balance and looking for local first.
Steve
And Danny, you touched on a little bit early on, but if you could expand when approving these art installations, how much importance is placed on selecting pieces that that do show the cultural diversity, the history of our community. You know, the special events like the cool April nights and the rodeo and obviously the Native American heritage and things of that nature. How much of those taken into account when deciding which murals to approve, where they go, etc.?
Danny
With the art community, they're very open to, whether it is something that is extremely meaningful or something that may be just esthetically pleasing. And I think each piece is going to be different. Another piece that we worked on as a group, it's called the Shasta Historical Society. I don't know if there's an actual name for the mural. We're just calling it the Shasta Historical Society mural. But with that one in particular, we were in touch with the board of the Shasta Historical Society. So really understanding things in our area and what was going to showcase well on their building, but also represented the area so that one had a little bit more detail in it, in the sense of of the fishery and the certain birds that were chosen and the landscape that was put up on there, and making sure it's a nice view of Mount Shasta from our area. So that one had a lot of thought into it as well. Where sometimes they might be a little bit more quirky. We were working on a box project right now with Roux. It's called the Beyond the Box project, with 20 different local artists and 20 different electrical boxes, all in the core of downtown in the cultural district. And there's some boxes that one of them across from the Lorenz Hotel by Dustin Gall. It's an aquarium, so that one's really cool and unique and a little more abstract. So I think it really varies overall on the artist, what they want to put out there, what the business owner wants to see. I think whenever you are able to tie to the roots locally, then of course it just hits a different chord with those who are seeing it and they feel that much more connected to the art piece. But I wouldn't say that it has to be one way or the other, at least for my experience.
Katie
Okay. And so we've talked about selecting artists and we've talked about selecting buildings. But when it comes to funding, how are these things funded. Are they are they grant funded. Are they funded by the business owner or are they funded through visit Redding or the board Redding Foundation. How do you find funding for these murals?
Danny
Yeah, so it's not through. Visit Redding. A Redding. A lot of times I think people get it, might get it confused that, hey, it's all through the taxpayers dollars through visit Redding when when it truly isn't. It. I just happen to be the director of the organization, so it's hard to kind of balance those those two. It's been awesome just asking the community for support. How the Historical Society mural came up was once there was the mural reveal for the Welcome to Redding mural. Actually, I had a private funder come up to me and they said, hey, I have x thousand dollars to put towards a mural. Is that something that you'd be interested in? Helping find an artist and a find a wall. So they came up and had a had a donation. I gave them a list of five artists locally, five artists that were more nationally, and they chose Jess Mudgett to do that wall. But it wasn't enough for that private funders to have that artist paint paint the wall. So then I went ahead and looked at places around on, hey, who else would potentially be a funder? We have such a generous community. If you look at any flier on a window, you're going to see a list of logos on the very bottom of that flier. And on the flier you're probably going to going to see maybe a bank, or maybe a tire shop, or any type of business that wants to support that, that mission behind that event that's on people's windows.
Danny
I saw Members First Credit Union was on one of the fliers and happened to be at their bank and talked to them, tried to get a hold of of the marketing department and got a hold of them and let Josh know. Josh is amazing over there, remembers first Bank. I got to give him a shout out, but overall he said, yeah, we support art and we support the outdoors. And it seems like this mural would incorporate both. We would love to support. We can't finish the rest of the funding process for for this one, but hey, I have a sister bank that I would love to call up called up Sierra Central Credit Union and they funded the rest of the mural. So it was just a great community aspect. And when you you ask, sometimes it's a yes and sometimes it's a no, but you'll never know unless you ask. So you have to find those businesses you think are going to be involved and just ask and see what happens. And it helps out having a 500 1C3 uh, with four Redding foundation to really back up the the murals that we're doing. So that helps out. Helps us out a ton.
Steve
So just just so I'm clear. So if I'm either an artist interested in commissioning a mural or a business owner interested in having a mural on my wall, and maybe I don't either have have a place for that mural and I don't have funding for that. Will the either the Art in Public Places committee or the board Redding Foundation? Will those help me secure that funding and potentially help me with a wall, or do I need to come to the table with those things in hand already and then present to be approved for that permit?
Danny
You have to have those things ready overall and then present to the to the committee. You essentially take that artwork down to the permit center. Once you have identified the wall and the funding portion, and then they'll send it to the Art in Public Places Committee, and they'll approve the artwork and then can send it back to the permit. So it's an easy stamp of approval. Um, a lot of with like the cutting of the funds was adding this committee in. So then it didn't have, um, a lot of people in the permit center get bogged down with, with a bunch of murals whenever, um, they need to focus on either commercial or residential permits or other things in their office. Overall, they can feel free to hit up paint the town Redding at gmail.com. So if they want to want to, email Redding at gmail.com or go on to paint the town Redding. Com. The only problem is we just don't have any more funding at the moment. Who knows what could happen in the next six months or things like that. But what I've noticed also is whenever there's a piece of artwork that multiple people feel involved in, whether that's something like the Ford Redding mural that was significance of the car fire and the community coming together, I think that one was easier to rally around for them to fundraise for that. So it's hard to kind of find out what's the best way to fundraise. I'm more than happy to help out point people in the right direction. I just personally don't have or the paint the town Redding as well doesn't have enough money to fund fundraise at the moment or or time to fundraise for more murals that are happening right now. But if if funding happens and if you have a wall as well, then we can help you select the artist, um, if needed, or show you a list of different artists that are locally and their different styles and things of that nature.
Speaker4
And how how have you seen these.
Katie
Installations affect visitors and locals as you're as you're working with business owners and people who are experiencing these murals, what's your what's your take on it?
Danny
Oh, man. This is like the the best part of it all is just seeing the reactions. I want to say like 90% that I hear is always good. And and then the 10% isn't like, oh, why'd you do it? It's maybe like, they didn't like that style of art versus another style. But the community has been extremely grateful for these of what is what I've noticed, like small examples are with the box project, the behind the box project with are you sponsoring those utility boxes? Um, with the 20 artists, multiple of those artists said I was painting the box and people would just come up to me and thank me for beautifying our city. I wasn't expecting them to come up while I was midway through a painting and just nonstop compliment them, and that's actually resulted in more work as well, uh, for those individuals, which is really cool and rewarding, knowing that, um, some of them might be painting some murals in a diner, um, and another one in somebody's house for a project for their child. Like seeing how overall one box can now create more work for that artist. Is really cool to see, and being able to have their portfolio out there for the public to to hopefully support that, that artist and to have them keep on going with their work has been really cool. Another instance with the latest mural was what's the best that can happen? So Steph Lynn, the one who did the Welcome to Redding, she actually donates a mural every single year to a city or to a business, and she wanted to come back and donate a wall to Redding. So we were able to help find funding for her to to get to our area and to cover the paint supplies.
Danny
Um, but she donated the what's the best that can happen? It's on the corner of Butte and Sequoia, and I saw a post on Facebook and it showed a picture of the mural and it said, this is so cool for our community. And it had like over 200 comments about the optimism piece for the the mural itself and how everyone was just really loving that. The corner that once was graffitied a lot now has a positive message. And right being right next to next to Sequoia School, and how many different children walk by that and being able to affect them and show them, hey, what is the best that can happen? I know we're always used to like, what's the worst that can happen? But just thinking so optimistically really change people's perspective. So I think the art is working overall from that piece, from a visit Redding lens. Uh, I saw somebody at the Sundial Bridge, and they had a trail map out there holding this map out, and, um, they were looking for a stress ribbon bridge at the time, and I was talking to them, and I was like, hey, what brought you guys up here? Like, how come you guys are here? And they said, hey, we saw a visit Redding and they were from San Jose, and we came up to check out the murals and do a bike tour. So being able to see that kind of come into the visit Redding light of like, hey, there's a lot of this behind the scenes working on beautifying, but then also the marketing and piece of getting people to come here is working as well. So it was like it was a win on multiple fronts.
Steve
I love that answer and I love your your passion and optimism for it. I guess I'd be remiss then, and not maybe asking the the other end of that question for the, you know, because there are naysayers out there who say, you know, art is great. However, we need to need to focus on, you know, the roads and the community, community safety, etc.. I mean, what do you say to those folks, you know, devoting funds and I know grant funds or grant funds and, and funding for art is different than, you know, public funds, etc.. But what do you say to those folks who who say, don't focus on art, focus on, you know, some of the core issues that are at hand in our community?
Danny
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I think for me, it's kind of a blessing because, like, I'm not into that side of it. Like I don't know where funding is coming exactly to go to the roads for filling potholes or to restriping the street. I've been able to kind of take the passion that I have for art and to, uh, place, make and to be able to find, find people who want to do that with us. Like, uh, that's what's been so rewarding, even working with the art hunger. And they work a lot with Viva Downtown. And they helped out with this project for the electrical boxes. But they had a ton of connections with the artists. But overall, what I, what I would say is art is really going to inspire people to think differently, maybe react differently. And I think if you get people to an art site, they want to check out another art site. And I think that's why art galleries are so powerful, because you can see so many pieces of art in one building. How are you able to see so many pieces of art in one city, and thinking about our city as our product? And what kind of label that we have on our city, and how beautiful that label is, and how is it going to get grabbed off the shelf. But it really helps the economy. The more that people can come down and walk around and have a chance to open their wallets to these local businesses. I think that's that's another core reason on why we're doing this, is to really help people see, hey, this is a really cool city. And now instead of driving by now, they parked and walked around, checked it out, got a coffee, maybe grab some lunch, maybe grab a drink afterwards and supported 3 or 4 different businesses. Maybe they got, uh, bought a bag at a local shop as well. So thinking about it from that perspective on, hey, we want to be the core of the snowball. How do we make it grow and really inspire people to, to boost the economy?
Katie
And so we've mentioned, I mean, you've mentioned 3 or 4 murals right now that people might not be aware of. Is there a map or a place where people can go and actually see a list of all these murals and take a tour of them? Where can they get the most up to date information about where these murals sit?
Danny
We do have a tour on visit Redding. Com called The Mural Writer, so it encourages people to use one of the bikeshare bikes and to check out all these murals around town. Um, we all are. We're working on a larger map for the 20 boxes. Um, with our use project. Um, that should be finished shortly. Uh, we're going to have a mural walk on March 7th. So the mural walk pamphlet will be done by March 7th, of course. And then all that will be online as well. We've had about 14 different artists. Of the 20 artists finished their electrical boxes. So there's still a few electrical boxes downtown that aren't completed yet. But once the project is done, they'll be a lot of different assets coming out, and people can check out that walking tour as well.
Steve
You know, I love I love traveling through downtown and seeing all. It seems like every time I go through downtown there's something new either being being painted or being developed. But are there plans within within these efforts to efforts to expand the art installations and mural work to other parts of the city as well. And it seems like right now they're they're fairly kind of downtown and downtown, adjacent, focused.
Danny
Yeah. For some of the ones that we are looking for in this next year are on hilltop, how do we continue to make hilltop a cool location as well, especially with the visitors hanging out there? More with Hospitality Row right there with all the hotels. So hilltop is another location? Uh, a lot of it comes down to who wants to help out. If you're listening right now, feel free to email in. And if you want to donate, that would be awesome, too. Uh, a lot of it does come down to the funding portion. So if people are passionate about art and want to help fund, then we can put art wherever the buildings are approved or and the art committee approved as well, if they're based on those limitations. But I think it was a very strong or very cool strategic approach to do the core of downtown first, to kind of show what's possible in a small area and then be able to expand outwards. And we have a lot of real estate around Redding and a lot of large buildings and just large fixtures that could be turned into artwork. Overall, I have a lot of lot of dreams. Even just passing on I-5. There's a there's a building right next to the giant flag that has seven panels that are garage doors. Last time I checked, Redding was seven letters as well, so it could be something really cool with that aspect or doing things like that. But I feel like there's a lot of, uh, a lot of open walls that could could have some cool artwork on them.
Katie
And just to give specific numbers or I know it varies so much by size, but like if someone's interested in this and like, yes, I want to donate to a mural, can you give a ballpark of what does a mural cost to get put together so somebody listening can say, oh yeah, that would be a great thing for me to donate this.
Speaker5
Year? Definitely.
Danny
The prices range a lot. In the last year, an average price was anywhere from like 10 to $14 per square foot of a wall, so around around 3000 roughly for a 300 square foot wall. It all depends. Also like on intricacy of the design as well, whether it's something very abstract or if it's something that is extremely like realistic, and it's going to take that artist that much more time to add shading and add dimension to that person's face or whatever the object may be. So it definitely varies, but anywhere between 10 to $14 a square foot is typically a going rate.
Steve
And Danny, I mean, obviously it's you know, it's not an inexpensive endeavor, but it doesn't sound horribly expensive in general. I guess what is the lifespan of a mural that's going up nowadays, and how do we ensure that it stays, you know, fresh and new and, and looks good for, for years to come?
Danny
A lot of times in the contracts, it'll be a five year minimum for that mural. A lot of that's to kind of protect the the building owner and the artist so that their artwork can be up there. If the business owner wants to paint the wall or something and they aren't, aren't liking the artwork anymore, they can paint over it. But that five year time frame, time frame has been something that we put out there. We've seen murals last, I mean, 50 plus years with the Mount Shasta mural just over here on Yuba and Pine Street. I want to say that's almost like 60 years old now for that mural, but it is a north facing mural, the Cascade Paint, the one on Cascade Paint. It's the Trinity Alps with the hot air balloon. That one's another mural that's been up for about 50 years also, so they can withstand the test of time, they'll need a little bit of more touch ups. A lot of it does come down to like the anti-graffiti paint on the outside and a protector and sealant.
Katie
Is there anything else you want to be sure that we touch on regarding murals before we go?
Speaker5
I think it's just been really cool.
Danny
To become like an ambassador for Redding for like art and art ambassador and down to help out whoever, whoever wants help finding out how to get a mural done or how to get their artwork on on a building. But I'm just really appreciative of the community for being so accepting of the art.
Speaker6
Oh, cool. Oh.
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