The Office of Arts & Culture in partnership with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) has commissioned Seattle artist Vaughn Bell to be the Green Infrastructure and Waterways artist-in-residence at SPU for a six month period starting in January 2016. Bell will work closely with SPU staff to develop an art master plan to guide future public art commissions to be integrated into SPU Drainage and Wastewater projects (e.g., combined sewer overflow prevention, pollutant reduction, water quality improvement).
Vaughn Bell creates interactive and immersive artwork projects that deal with how we relate to our environment. She has exhibited her sculpture, installation, performance, video and public projects internationally; completing commissions for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and the Edith Russ Site for New Media Art in Oldenburg, Germany. She received her MFA from the Studio for Inter-related Media at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA and her undergraduate degree from Brown University. From 2008 – 2012, Bell worked as the SDOT/ARTS Liaison in the Seattle Department of Transportation, where she worked to integrate art and the ideas of artists into projects in the public right-of-way.
SPU’s Plan to Protect Seattle’s Waterways is a strategy to control combined sewage overflows and reduce stormwater-related pollution in Seattle’s waterways. SPU will implement projects to control combined overflows in 11 neighborhoods and address stormwater runoff in areas that are not part of the combined sewer system. Stormwater projects are focused on reducing the amount of pollutants entering local waterbodies and include building roadside green stormwater infrastructure projects, expanded street sweeping of arterials throughout the City and installing a stormwater treatment facility in the South Park neighborhood. Visit SPU’s Sewage Overflow Protection for more information for more details about The Plan to Protect Seattle’s Waterways.
Bell was selected by a panel of artists, community members, and SPU staff. The project is commissioned with SPU 1% for Art funds.
Photo: Vaughn Bell with her Village Green installation by Tim Bell
