Client: City of El Paso Museum & Cultural Affairs Dept.
Location: El Paso, TX, United States
Completion date: 2015
Artwork budget: $70,000
Project Team
Artist
Charlotte Paul
C. Paul Stained Glass Inc.
Industry Resource
Barbara Derix
Derix Glasstudios
Public Art Agent
Pat Dalbin
City of El Paso Museum and Cultural Affairs Dept.
Architect
Renee Jimenez
MNK Architects
Client
El Paso History Museum
Overview
The El Paso Museum of History has improved its facility with an interactive Touch City 3-D digital wall and stained glass installation built onto the Museum’s exterior welcome pavilion. El Paso Museum of History is centrally located in the downtown El Paso Cultural District.
Goals
The Stained Glass art creates an exterior wall in the pavilion that remains open to the public from morning to night. This space allows people to interact with the touch screen digital wall that contains historical images and information about El Paso past and present. The stained glass artwork glows on the exterior pavilion wall with translucent colors of the southwest. At night the art creates a colorful beacon to the History Museum pavilion for people participating in downtown events. The transparency of the glass allows people interacting with the digital imagery to be visible during the evening hours.
Process
The History Museum, architect and public art committee sought an artist interpretation of the southwest. The design reflects the Southwest landscape of light and vast open space, while balancing the complexity of the multi-layered digital wall. "Time expanding" is symbolically represented in the upward gesture that also mirrors the new Architectural elements in the entrance expansion. Derix's Glass Studios were selected to fabricate the hand made stained glass artwork with fired vitreous airbrushed and hand painted elements, tempered and laminated to a second clear pane, before additional hand-blown stained glass pieces are applied to the surface to create brilliant textural elements.
Additional Information
The City of El Paso downtown area is experiencing a true Renaissance with Public Art being one strong contributing element in their overall plan. The economic returns will benefit the city, as the quality of cultural experiences impact both residents and visitors of the area, through this rich and varied investment of art.