Agoura Gets to the Art of the Matter

There’s art in these hills, and it’s everywhere. Have you noticed?

You go to the library and pass a silver ring beside a tree.

You grab lunch at The Habit and sit outside next to the water fountain.

You go to the dentist off of Palo Comado Canyon and you’ll need to watch out for a group of settlers hauling water at the Agoura Road intersection.

These art pieces, and many others like them, constitute the city’s Art in Public Places program.

“Most cities have a type of art in public places program, said Amy Brink, the director of community services. “We have close to 40 pieces of art in the city.”

According to Brink, they come in all shapes and sizes. Some are bronze, others metal and a handful are in stone, but they are all weather resistant, because, predominantly, the art pieces are outside for all to see.

“They’re outside—in the parking lot, in landscaping...somewhere visible to the public,” said Valerie Darbouze, an associate planner in Agoura Hills’ Department of Planning and Community Development.  

Developers are required to put in an art piece if their project is over 30,000 square feet in size, said Darbouze. They work with the city’s , which was formed in fall of 2010, she said. 

According to Brink, the developer brings in several potential artists that they have commissioned or from whom they’ve gotten proposals. The Arts Council goes through and selects either one artist or narrows it down. 

They are currently going through that process on a new development, she said. “The Cultural Arts Council picked three (artists) asked to create a piece of work specifically for the project,” said Brink. “They’re going to work with that artist. You see the Cultural Arts Council take a more active role in art being developed and installed in the city.”

The council also meets directly with the artist. Sometimes they have to work through issues like development standards and sometimes artists will have to make changes to their pieces, said Darbouze.

The Cultural Arts Council is also working on cataloging all of the city's art in public places to create a database. The result would be a printed flier or pamphlet with a list of the art pieces—their addresses, artist and other information—and a corresponding map, said Darbouze.

“I don’t know that people know that the city actually has art in public places,” said Brink. “I’m hoping that the work that the Cultural Arts Council is doing will bring more awareness.”

Patch has put together a photo gallery of 15 of Agoura Hill’s eclectic art pieces. See if you can recall where you might have seen them before reading the captions.