Gal-About-Town.
To those who appreciate the Mural at Terrace Park:
The purpose of this article is to inform you that the artist, Josef Norris, who created the much appreciated mural at Terrace Park, was never fully paid for his work by the City Of Albany. Here’s the story. It's a bit long, but it does have a happy ending!
Josef Norris, a well-respected and widely known Bay Area muralist, was selected by the Arts Committee to do the Terrace Park mural and the contract with the City of Albany was signed on April 10, 2007. The total cost was $9,449, of which $3600 would go to artist, $600 to an assistant, and the rest for materials, insurance, and other costs. The completion date for the project was specified as “not later than October 30, 2007”. The start date was not specified. However, the schedule contemplated by the artist and the City at that time was: design work to start in April, tile workshops at a school to be in May, fabrication in June, installation in July, dedication in October.
Upon signing the contract Josef made it clear he was ready to start work, and would do so as soon as he received the initial start-up payment of $1000 as called for in the contract. When this payment was not forthcoming Josef contacted the City to find out why and found himself engaged in a long discussion over the insurance package he had proposed to provide. This was a standard insurance package for public art projects, routinely accepted by his many other clients including the cities of Oakland and San Francisco. Josef suggested that the City consult with other Bay Area arts commissions to resolve their questions. This apparently never occurred. When Joseph asked the Arts Committee for help in resolving these issues, the response was essentially: We are just volunteers. Your problems are with the city.
So instead of a close, cooperative relationship (typical of virtually all of his other projects) Joseph found himself in a protracted tangle with the City, and with little support or interest on the part of the Arts Committee. Communications were slow and difficult and cost Josef a significant amount of uncompensated time. Because of these delays and other reasons unknown, Joseph did not receive his first payment (and was not able to start work) until the middle of June, over two months after the contract was signed.
In addition to the mural, the contract called for the artist to conduct ‘tile painting workshops' for kids at a school. It was the Arts Committee’s responsibility to arrange, schedule, and publicize these workshops. Since school was now out and that opportunity lost, the workshops were rescheduled at the Community Center and the Senior Center. The first workshop at the Community Center was a big success, with over 60 people attending (kids, families, seniors). Roughly 70 tiles created there are to be seen in the finished mural. A few days later Josef made a second trip over from San Francisco to do the final workshop at the Albany Senior Center. The groundwork had not been done and only one person showed up.
During the time Josef worked on this project, the staff person assigned by the City to interface with him turned over four times. When contacted, each new liaison person would, understandably, not be up to speed on details of the project.
The contract called for an inspection on the part of the Arts Committee when the in-studio fabrication was complete. On August 23 Josef notified the Arts Committee that this milestone had been reached, and invited committee members over to San Francisco for a viewing and inspection, prior to moving the mural to Albany for installation. Not one member of the Arts Committee was apparently interested enough to come over. Josef sent pictures.
Josef then moved the mural to Terrace Park and the installation was completed by September 11. An email to Josef from Barry Whittaker, (Project Manager for the Terrace Park Renovation) stated, “Bottom line, the mural looks great.”
At this point, the Arts Committee finally showed an interest in the mural, which took the form of criticizing the installation. They made inspections, and pointed out what they considered to be imperfections and problems with the tiles. In September and October Josef made three trips to the site to do final touch-up work and to take care of the concerns of the Arts Committee. During the last two sessions, members of the Arts Committee were present and Josef had them place pieces of blue masking tape on the mural where they considered problems to exist. He made the repairs/corrections accordingly and believed that his work on the mural was now complete.
On October 11, the dedication was held with several hundred people viewing the mural, including the Mayor. A few days later Josef submitted his invoice for final payment of $1000. End of story? Not quite!
On October 25, Joseph received an email from Barry Whittaker stating: “I’m sorry that no one has communicated with you in regards to the final payment. There is some concern regarding the corrects (sic) we most recently asked you to make which have largely not been done.”
Over the course of letters and emails that followed, the City also noted that the contract stated “Installation will include services of a professional tile setter,” and asserted that one had not been present. Josef’s response was that with over 60 mural installations on his resume, he clearly met this qualification and requirement. There was no budgeted money for an additional tilesetter.
We think it is fair to say that Josef stood ready to support the mural. But we must also acknowledge that he was very upset and frustrated at this point. If someone had had the courtesy to call him and say, ”We appreciate the mural and all your work. I will meet you at the mural and together we will determine the final things to be done. I am authorized to inspect, accept the work, and authorize your final payment”, then we have no doubt that the outcome would have been favorable. But a considerate, person-to-person approach was apparently not in the City’s play book. On November 16 Penelope Leach, (Director, Recreation and Community Services) sent Josef a letter which listed six tasks, some quite broad, that he was to perform in the next 20 days. He was informed that final payment would be withheld until these were completed, inspected, and accepted.
Here, we must point out that Josef is an extremely busy artist. On the assumption that the Terrace Park project was finished at the time of the dedication, he had already launched his Kid Serve program with schools (children making murals) and now had a number of other commitments. Rainy weather also interfered with tile work during that period. As a result, Josef could not meet this deadline. He reiterated his willingness to do further work as time permitted. But communications effectively broke down at that point.
In February, 2008, Josef received a letter from Robert Zweben, Albany City Attorney stating: “You have had plenty of time and opportunities to address this matter but have not. This letter is to notify you that the City now intends to hire a professional tilesetter to correct the problems.” Josef responded by citing his many frustrations over the course of the project, and again requesting his final payment. In a final letter from the City, Attorney Zweben stated: “Given what you have said...We have a dispute...You can pursue whatever remedy you see fit.”
The City says it did hire someone, but at this point it's pretty hard to see what, if anything, was changed. For most of us the mural looks exactly as it did at the time of its dedication.
In Conclusion:
Josef is a widely known and respected artist with many works (some very large) to his credit throughout the Bay Area and beyond. You might wish to go to his website (www.kidserve.org) to view his murals and his programs for kids. He worked hard for Albany in a very difficult environment to create a complex mural that tells a story with figures--a mural that has been viewed and admired by hundreds of people in Albany. Kids particularly like it and enjoy pointing out to their parents and others the tiles they and their parents made at the tile painting session. Josef's a good faith effort to meet all the requirements of the Arts Committee is clear. He has more than earned his full compensation!
AlbanyCentral does not, obviously, have the resources to right all the wrongs in the world. But we just couldn’t let this one pass and decided (with help and support from some great folks in Albany), to “do the right thing”. Below, Sandra P. Landers, presents Josef (shown here with wife Jo, and son Adi) with his final payment of $1000 "On behalf of the Good People of Albany and the Friends of Terrace Park." (continue down)
