A project by the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture to decorate K-rail at the intersection of State and Haley streets begins this Memorial Day Weekend.
“My approach to this project was to really celebrate all the things we love about living in Santa Barbara,” said Santa Barbara artist Andrew Thill.
The eight K-rail panels stretching 40 feet at the intersection will be covered in vinyl wraps featuring Thill’s “Iconic Santa Barbara” architecture.
The county received 60 art submissions that Sarah York Rubin, executive director of the organization, said were all outstanding.
“We were thrilled to see the different variety of work and approaches,” York Rubin said at last week’s Historic Landmarks Commission Meeting.
The art represents the ocean, Santa Barbara wine country, State Street, shopping and architecture, surfboard and other so-called “iconic” elements that identify Santa Barbara.
The new art comes at a time when Santa Barbara is struggling with how to make State Street work amid competing community interests. The city is requiring that all outdoor parklets be protected by K-rail to prevent cars smashing into them.
At least twice in the past couple of years, cars have wiped out parklets, although no one was seated at the time.
State Street itself is closed from the 500 to 1200 blocks to vehicles.
The K-rail that is the site of the art project protects vehicles on the 400 block of State Street from traveling onto the 500 block.
As of now, the artwork will last through summer, but it could get extended longer.
“I like the artwork, it looks great, it’s fun,” said Commission Member Keith Butler. He also raised the question of whether the art could be digital or interactive, rather than static, but York Rubin said that doing so would be cost prohibitive.
Board member Dennis Doordan said although he supports the art project, he does not encourage the normalizing of art for this purpose.
“I just want to be very clear,” he said. “I don’t like K-rails. So I don’t want anything that happens here to be taken as ‘we are on board with K-rails as part of the future of State Street.’ They are there now, and we want to make them better.”
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