The Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture is co-producing a new public art installation at the Betteravia Government Campus in Santa Maria, in partnership with Allan Hancock College and the city of Santa Maria. Designed by local artist and art instructor Nancy Jo Ward, Valley of Light includes seven tree-like sculptures made of branches punctuated with acrylic leaves.
This outdoor exhibition will use solar-powered LED leaf lights, which will project kaleidoscopic fields of color during the evening, and is scheduled to be installed this summer. Running on 100 percent renewable energy is a transition all buildings at the campus will be adapting to sometime later this year, according to the Office of Arts and Culture.
“The installation’s efficient LED lights are solar powered through a photovoltaic and battery storage system that will also provide reliable power for the Betteravia Campus,” Ashley Watkins, chief of the county’s Sustainability Division, said in a release.
Dennis Smitherman, chair of the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, praised Ward’s design for its “thoughtful, imaginative, smart, responsible use of solar energy to light the displays.”
Ward’s proposal for Valley of Light was selected from a large slate of submittals from various faculty members in Hancock’s Fine Arts Department. The artist has strong connections to the Betteravia Government Campus, according to the release. She recalled memories of her daughter attending preschool there nearly three decades ago and described the campus as “a place where community comes together and where lives change.”
Once Valley of Light is completed sometime this summer, a virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held. To find out more about the upcoming public art installation, visit sbac.ca.gov.
This article appears in Apr 15-22, 2021.