esperanza park roundabout public art opportunity

The Public Arts Commission invites artists to create a sculpture for the entryway roundabout in the city’s newest public space, Esperanza Park.  Esperanza Park is a new 7.5 acres park featuring children’s play areas, shaded picnic spaces, fitness equipment, sports fields, basketball courts, a dog park, and connectivity to the regional CV Link, a regional multi-modal trail system.    The park’s opening was the culmination of a community-driven effort, years in the making, bringing a vital recreational space to a previously underserved neighborhood, locally known as the Dream Homes community. The name Esperanza meaning “hope” in Spanish, reflects the community’s vision for this vibrant new gathering space.  The public art installation will be located in the roundabout at the park’s main entrance. 

This past May, staff facilitated a bi-lingual discussion with residents seeking input on the neighborhood’s ideas for this public art piece.  The residents shared their ideas on what they would like the piece to represent which included the themes of resilience, rising from the ashes, transformation, metamorphosis, growth, regeneration, rebirth, safety, and inviting for all children.  The residents also shared some of their ideas on imagery that accompanied these themes which included children with flowers, police officer with boy and girl, butterfly with rainbow colors, rainbow after the rain, big butterfly with children underneath it/looking at it, butterfly coming out of a cocoon.  Lastly, staff sent out coloring sheets to the neighboring elementary school and asked the students to share their ideas for the art piece.  Samples of the student artwork is attached https://www.cathedralcity.gov/exhibits.  These concepts should serve as inspiration in the development of the artistic vision for this piece rather than a limiting factor.

Site Description

Esperanza Park is located at 30610 San Diego Drive in Cathedral City. The 7.53-acre park is uniquely situated on a narrow strip of land bordered by the Dream Homes neighborhood on one side and the Whitewater River Channel with the Coachella Valley Link (CV Link), a regionl multi-modal trail on the other. Because of the site’s linear shape ranging from just five (5) feet wide at both ends to approximately two hundred twenty (220) feet at its widest point in the middle, all amenities were thoughtfully arranged in collaboration with community members. The result is a park layout that accommodates a variety of recreational features, including a futsal field, basketball courts, fitness stations, and more.

Because the site has no direct street frontage, park access presented a unique challenge. To address this, three vehicular and pedestrian entrances were created from the Dream Homes neighborhood. Visitors may enter from parking lots at Mia Place or Chia Place, or from the new central driveway, which features a roundabout and center planter, which is the optimum location for the future public art installation.