Artist Bobby Zokaites is set to create a “Cotton Boll” sculpture in south Chandler as a salute to the city’s cotton and Goodyear tires history if a $200,000 contract is approved at Thursday evening’s Chandler City Council meeting.
One of the larger expenditures listed on the Chandler City Council’s Thursday evening regular meeting agenda is part of a major historical undertaking.
The council will be asked to approve a $200,000 city contract with Zokaites Sculpture, LLC, for a sculpture at the Goodyear Canal project. That’s a historical project that salutes cotton farming and the people who worked in that industry when it helped the city grow in its early decades.
Thursday’s regular meeting is set for 6 p.m. at Chandler City Hall, 88 E. Chicago Street in downtown Chandler. A 4 p.m. budget work session will be held in a City Hall conference room.
A staff report states that in 2022, a National Endowment for the Arts committee visited Chandler to evaluate three potential projects for the Mayor’s Institute on City Design Conference. The proposed locations included Uptown Chandler, East Downtown Chandler and the Goodyear Canal.
Eventually, the report states, the committee selected the Goodyear Canal to be presented at the conference. Mayor Kevin Hartke then showcased the Goodyear Canal’s historical significance at the 2023 MICD Conference.
Mayors from across the country, along with urban design experts, provided input and recommendations on how to activate the canal, celebrating Chandler’s modern history while promoting culture and placemaking.
Following the conference, city staff worked with MICD consultants to outline recommendations for the Goodyear Canal. One recommendation was the installation of a larger public art piece to highlight the canal’s importance.
Funding for the initiative was approved in the city’s fiscal 2024 capital improvement program budget.
The art sculpture will be called “Cotton Boll” and will be created by artist Bobby Zokaites. It will symbolize the impact of cotton on Chandler’s development, especially at the southern edge of the city, and its role in the production of Goodyear tires.
The design, approved by the Chandler Arts Commission in August of last year, will feature a metal sculpture in the shape of a cotton boll along with an informational kiosk at the northern end of the canal. The kiosk will include information on the significance of the canal, cotton, and Goodyear town site.
The piece is set to be completed by December 2025.
Future project phases will include an educational pictorial depicting the cotton seed’s journey from planting to harvest and the addition of a second kiosk at the southern end of the canal, the report states.
Also on Thursday’s regular meeting agenda are an annexation of county right-of-way near Chandler Heights and Alma School roads and a $400,000 annual contract for digital media services.
Jason W. Brooks News Editor | Chandler Independent
Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.
Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.
Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.
Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here