The City of Reno recently decided to spend nearly $400,000 on two art projects for the Public Safety Center police headquarters opened last summer, with both artists coming from out of town, and one with no indication of what the end result might look like beyond being a sculpture.
In a meeting in late April, agenda items B9 and B10 were approved, one for a public plaza concept granted to Seattle based artist John Fleming at a cost not to exceed $175,000 based on sketches with Truckee river symbolism, and another for the Brooklyn-based Mark Reigelman at a cost not to exceed $200,000 for a sculpture in the parking lot along 911 Kuenzli street, which came without any renderings whatsoever in his attached packet.
Reigelman has previously done the Manifest Destiny public art at the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco, and Smökers, a series of miniature houses positioned over steam-emitting manholes in New York City. Fleming recently got other Reno work to create the new public art at the corner of Oddie and Silverado Boulevards.
In discussions before the approval, Mayor Hillary Schieve said she hoped money could stay for local talented artists, rather than being given to outsiders, and that projects should be seen in detail before these go forward.
“Both of these pieces of art are exceptional,” councilman Devon Reese said, even though one was in the rough draft sketch stage and the sculpture had no suggestion of what it might be.
Megan Berner the Arts and Culture Manager said they did not ask for specific design proposals, and prefer to proceed first with getting an artist on board to then get community engagement in shaping what the art ends up being. She said Reigelman “did a large amount of research,” and is planning to “engage pretty heavily,” to develop the project.
Our Town Reno reporting, May 2025