The Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation, has selected Seattle artist Elizabeth Gahan to create a permanent, site-specific artwork for a new park in Seattle’s Lake City Neighborhood.
The new neighborhood park located at 12510 33rd Ave NE, previously housed an office building that was purchased in 2010 as part of the Green Spaces Levy, and demolished early 2016. The park will serve Lake City’s growing population with much needed green space and provide a safe place to play, exercise and enjoy. Seattle Parks and Recreation has worked over the past year to gather community input into the overall design of this ¼ acre park.
Gahan will work closely with the design team to integrate artistic elements within the new park. Her artwork will consider the park location and conversations with the Lake City community will inform her work to create an interactive space that engages diverse audiences. Community conversations and design work will occur in early 2017, with the construction scheduled to start in late 2017/early 2018. “Elizabeth’s work will bring a positive energy to this area,” said community representative Cheryl Klinker. “This new park will offer a variety of activities to Lake City, and we think the color and style of her work will be an excellent fit to the neighborhood.”
Gahan is a Seattle-based artist. She received a dual undergraduate degree in Global Studies and Fine Art from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master’s degree in Fine Art from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA with an emphasis in painting. Her current artwork considers relationships between natural and built environments as well as local community and global connectivity. Having completed numerous temporary commissions including Seattle Center’s Poetry Art Garden Series in 2016, Gahan has also recently been awarded commissions for new permanent artwork for the City of Spokane as well as a Washington State Arts Commission project at Washington Elementary School in Wenatchee, WA.
The artwork is being funded through Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Photo: ELIZABETH GAHAN, Urban Flora, 2014. 20′ x 4′ x 4′, Corrugated plastic ads, spray paint & wire
Description: Colorful corrugated plastic is manipulated to take on an organic form existing symbiotically with the host tree. Yet, the use of synthetic materials and ads points to a broader conversation of the impact of urban growth and consumer culture on the natural environment.
