M-PHS unveils latest piece from State Art Collection

A new piece of Washington’s State Art Collection was unveiled at Marysville-Pilchuck High School on Jan. 24 with the reveal of the ‘HopeGate.’

All schools are qualified to apply to the Washington State Arts Commission when building new construction, which M-PHS did when they built their new commons room.

The Art in Public Places Program, which is funded with 0.5 percent of state-funded construction, helps put art pieces near these construction projects.

“Thank you all for joining us here on this windy day for the official unveiling of our new artwork,” said M-PHS Principal Christine Bromley.

“It’s an honor to be here today to dedicate this artwork for Marysville-Pilchuck High School. There was a committee involved in this process and we began almost exactly two years ago,” said Marissa Laubscher, who is an Arts in Public Places project manager and served on the district’s committee to bring the project together.

In addition to Laubscher, committee members included Dave Rose, M-PHS principal at the time, Ricky Belmont, a Tulalip Tribes advocate, Louie Jones, an M-PHS ceramic teacher, Pete Lundberg, with the school district board of directors and two students.

The Marysville School District was awarded $60,000 for the project.

Districts are awarded art funds based on a wide range of criteria, including their commitment to stewardship of the piece, evidence that the artwork will complement school culture and evidence that the school’s committee is diverse and represents a broad community.

“We set parameters for what we wanted the sculpture to be and we set goals. That committee really wanted it to be something uplifting and positive that could be a part of the school,” said Laubscher.

The committee looked at a number of different potential artists for the project before choosing Seattle Pacific University professor Roger Feldman.

“They looked at over 60 artists' portfolios to choose Roger,” said Laubscher.

“They really liked the experience. You could walk through many of them or there were interactive components,” she said.

Feldman said he chose a gate sculpture because of the transitional nature it represented.

“High school is the end of the line and the beginning of a new feature,” he said.

“These pieces are joined together and form a passageway,” he said.

The gateway also points due west, which is by design.

“In American consciousness the west has always represented the unknown, opportunity and hope,” he said.

Before he began designing the piece, Feldman also took some inspiration from the Native American roots of the region.

“One of the things I did initially is go to different museums for this region,” including the Tulalip Tribes’ Hibulb Cultural Center, he said.

In Native design and art he saw a lot of symmetrical patterns, which he brought into the sculpture.

“It’s very balanced and stable. Taking that as a clue I arranged the piece you see outside in a symmetrical balanced system,” said Feldman.

The sculpture’s ‘leaning forward’ style was also inspired by traditional canoes that Feldman studied at the Hibulb Cultural Center.

Finally, the color of the material was inspired by the historical roots of the region.

“They [Native Americans] had to sustain themselves with game and wildlife, and in this region salmon. So that is why the color of the piece is salmon,” said Feldman.

The piece now joins 5,000 other pieces of art that are part of the statewide effort.

Many local businesses also contributed to the construction of the sculpture, including Smokey Point Concrete, who donated the concrete, Baker & Sons Concrete Construction LLC, who did all the finishing work for free, and We Do Dirt, who excavated the concrete for free.