St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline apologized for the city’s prior approval of a polarizing sculpture project before the board voted to abandon it entirely at a Monday evening meeting.
“I do regret and I do apologize for this misstep that we have made with the best of intentions,” she said before the panel scrapped the $250,000 project in a 3-2 vote. “It’s unfortunate that it turned out this way.”
The city has already spent $87,500 on designing the project, called Groundswell, that it can’t recoup.
The board had tapped the Miami-born and Harvard-educated artist Ivan DePena to place the work in a heavily trafficked roundabout near a stretch of road connecting St. Augustine to Vilano Beach.
Renderings of Groundswell were met with widespread objection online, with local commenters speculating that it would eventually serve as a recreational area for the homeless.
Others superimposed Teletubbies characters over the images, implying that that the stylized mound resembled their dwelling on the kids’ show.
Some argued that a local artist should have been selected.
The board originally voted to approve the project last summer after a series of public meetings and a lengthy vetting of artist proposals.
City Commissioner Cynthia Garris was the only dissenter in that tally.
She reiterated her opposition Monday, arguing that the remaining $162,500 could be routed elsewhere, including to homeless services.
“I know how valuable art is,” she said. “But I also know that everyday living and providing a better community for our residents is more important to me than that art display going on.”
City Commissioner Jim Springfield tepidly voted in favor of the piece last summer, but changed his mind Monday.
“One of the traits of a commissioner is to admit when you’re wrong,” he said, adding that he’s been flooded with negative assessments of the design.
“They are not opposed to artwork,” he said. “They are opposed to this particular artwork. They are also opposed to the price.”
Commissioner Barbara Blonder staunchly opposed the reversal, saying the initial vote was preceded by a robust public engagement process.
“I don’t think this was a misstep at all,” she said. “I don’t think that our decision back last summer was a misstep at all. In fact it was informed by a lengthy process that included a lot of public input. A lot. And I have heard a lot of positive about this piece and about this site.”
She also called the online derision of the piece “embarrassing,” and apologized to the artist on behalf of the city.
Panelist Jon DePreter, who was not on the board when the first vote was taken, voted against scrapping the project.
DePreter argued that the expenditure was not egregious in the context of municipal spending, and that the city should not squander the nearly $90,000 already spent.
He also argued that the move would signal a retreat from a commitment to public art.
“I don’t understand why people are taking offense from it,” he said.
But the nays prevailed in a final vote, officially grounding Groundswell.
