Carlsbad Seeks Volunteers to Help Shape Barrio, Chestnut Public Art Projects

New permanent public art is planned for Carlsbad’s Barrio and the surrounding area, and the city’s Cultural Arts Office is asking the community for input.

One of the main issues to be addressed – how can the art can best reflect the neighborhood’s identity and heritage?

Two art projects are planned for the middle of a new traffic circle at Pine Avenue and Harding Street and the Chestnut Interstate 5 underpass

There are three opportunities to get involved at this stage of the process:

• Attend the Barrio Traffic Circle Public Art workshop, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6,
  Carlsbad Senior Center, 799 Pine Ave.
• Apply to serve on the Public Art Advisory Subcommittee for Barrio Traffic Circle
• Apply to serve on the Public Art Advisory Subcommittee for the Chestnut underpass.

The city’s Art in Public Places Program outlines the public art development process, which includes subcommittees to review proposals from artists and ultimately vote to select the winner.

Subcommittee volunteers do not need to be art experts – knowledge of the neighborhoods involved and an interest in shaping these future public art projects is enough.

Applications can be completed online. The deadline is Dec. 8.

The traffic circle is one of five planned at local streets in the Barrio to help slow traffic, enhance walkability and provide a better balanced roadway for all modes of travel. Design and environmental permitting are near complete. 

The Chestnut Avenue I-5 underpass links the neighborhoods around Holiday Park on the east side of the freeway and the city’s Barrio community.

The City Council identified the Chestnut underpass as the city’s preferred location for enhancements as part of Build North Coast Corridor, a California Department of Transportation and San Diego Association of Governments project that includes highway, rail, environmental and coastal access improvement projects along the I-5 and rail corridor through Carlsbad.

The city describes the current location as an “undistinguished freeway undercrossing” that public art can enhance by connecting “these two neighborhoods in a unique manner (to) become a local landmark.”