The City of Brea was honored at the 19th Annual Arts Orange County Awards Ceremony at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa on October 16, 2018. Brea’s Blackstone neighborhood received the Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Built Environment. This award distinguishes the City of Brea and addresses the value of art in public places in the community.
The Blackstone art collection consists of eight site-specific sculptural installations, spanning a half-mile, that lace a major road through the community. The art pieces were created by Laguna Beach artist Marlo Bartels.
The Blackstone sculptures are embedded in a park-like setting with a multi-use trail connecting them. The scale of the sculptural pieces shift with each site. Up close, the monumental forms reveal surfaces covered with individual handmade tile bursting with detail, color, and energetic shapes.
Bartels has been producing ceramic and stone sculpture, mosaics, pictorial murals and functional art since 1977.
Brea hosts Orange County's oldest municipal Art in Public Places program, which begun in 1975, and is comprised of 178 works of art. This renowned program is larger than any other Orange County city. Sculptures created under Brea’s Art in Public Places Program are selected or commissioned by private developers (with a total project building valuation of $1.5 million or more) following a formal approval process.
View the Blackstone Art Collection here. Photos courtesy of Terry Sullivan.