PUBLIC ART

Integrated interior and exterior ceramic works by well-known Kansas artist Conrad Snider highlight the facility's entry plaza and Municipal Courtroom. Large-scale sculptural clay figures, intentionally nondescript, represent all of us as individual strands within our local community and our larger world. Carved' thread lines' crisscross their bases and are repeated on the handmade tiles of the building's exterior and within the wood paneling of the interior of the courtrooms; the 'fabric of society,' individuals supporting and supported by other individuals. A community's law enforcement center provides many necessary services. People often come to the facility for unpleasant reasons – perpetrators and victims are usually angry, sad, or anxious. Employees work in these situations, whether as a court official, janitor, police officer or secretary. The atmosphere of a facility of this nature can be sterile, difficult, and cold. "Woven," the integrated ceramic tile and sculpture title, provides a softened dignity to the seriousness of the work being done in this facility. It honors all people with purposeful non-discrimination. As lines in the clay represent each fiber in a cloth, we all are woven into community. We are the face of Salina. Hand-made interior and exterior tiles echo these common threads. The artwork has transformed this center's atmosphere into dignity, respect, and calm. Artist's Statement: "We often speak of the fabric of society, with each strand representing the individual, both supported by and supporting other individual strands." This idea of an interwoven social fabric is the theme of the artwork.