Walk past Atfalati Park on Sagert Street west of Wampanoag Drive and you will walk right over some really cool, community art that was permanently imprinted in the sidewalk in late September. The City was working on a traffic safety project through Tualatin Moving Forward, the City’s bond-funded program. The Sagert Street project included a new pedestrian-activated crossing at Sagert and Atfalati Park, as well as new sidewalks on the south side of Sagert. “We wanted to find a way to involve the community in the project,” Jeff Fuchs said, Tualatin’s Public Works Director.
The artwork, which includes mammoths, a sugar skull, doves, and a sun and moon, was selected through a contest involving dozens of community members over several months. Entry forms were distributed far and wide – in public schools and at the National Night Out event in August. Members of Tualatin’s Diversity Task Force, and the Tualatin Art Committee reviewed the submissions and narrowed it to the four. “It was really hard to choose,” Betsy Ruef, Tualatin’s Community Engagement Coordinator, said. “Everyone was so excited and happy to think that their art was going to be out on the sidewalk for all to see.”
Four artists were selected from over 50 submissions and include students from Bridgeport Elementary School, Hazelbrook Middle School, and Tualatin High School. Winning artists and their images include:
Allison Craner – Sun and Moon
David Damian Jaimes – Mammoths
Maya Payne – Sugar Skull
Arturo Villaseñor – Doves
Once the art was selected, the Tualatin Public Library got involved, putting some of their high-tech maker space equipment to work. Doug Boedenauer, a savvy Library employee used the Library’s 3-D carving machine to make molds of the art. Once complete, the molds were used to set the artwork in concrete. “I’ve always wanted to put my handprints in wet concrete and this was sort of like that,” Boedenauer said. “It was really cool to use our equipment to take the community art and make it into a permanent part of the sidewalk.”
