Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: In Focus

Media Credit: Jack Barnwell Chabot art instructor, Diane Zuliani, studies some slides in her office Tuesday afternoon.

Beige, bland and boring can easily describe the paint job for Chabot's school buildings. There is very little if any artwork to catch the attention of Chabot students meandering from class to class. All of that is about to change.

Recently, the Board of Trustees sold some property in the Lake Chabot area and generously decided to give the profit of the sale to both Las Positas and Chabot College.

This will give both campuses a budget of about $500,000 specifically for permanent public artworks as additions to the campuses.

This money cannot be used for anything else.

The Public Art Committee, made up of instructors and students, was asked by the Board of Trustees to serve the population as best as possible by choosing artwork that faculty and students want to see.

The committee must also ensure that the artwork chosen fits the "identity" of Chabot's campus life and is relevant to the campus.

This means artwork "will need to reflect our identity as a learning institution as one of the most multicultural and multiethnic colleges in the United States," Diane Zuliani, current art teacher at Chabot, said in an interview on.

The Board of Trustees will ultimately make the final decisions on the artwork chosen.

The committee was entrusted with the task of planning where the art will be placed, its theme, and making sure that the art is appropriate, safe, accessible and secure.

This semester, the committee should be taking their first steps to putting the plan into action but nothing is for sure yet.

However, a place of consideration for the art piece will be the Community and Students Services Center that will be a new building erected on the Hesperian side of the campus.

It will be very visible from the street and is considered the gateway building for the Chabot campus.

Also under consideration will be the quad and the library.

The planning will not be easy because even that must take into consideration the opinions of the masses.

Since not all people will be of one mind when choosing art for the campus, the committee will need to proceed slowly to ensure that all constituents are heard from.

Continued...

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