Sonoma County Seeks To Form Fire Memorial Task Force

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in June approved the creation and installation of a memorial artwork recognizing the impact of the 2017 Sonoma Complex Fires on the county’s residents and specifically honoring the memories of those whose lives were lost.

Proposed memorial artworks might include physical sculptures, gardens, mosaics, story collections and kiosks, and other process-oriented works.

The project will be overseen by a Fire Memorial Task Force in conjunction with Creative Sonoma, which is a division of the County’s Economic Development Board.

The process will be designed with significant flexibility for artists to conceptualize many types of memorial artworks, based on feedback gathered through community engagement activities.

“Communities are defined by how they come together in the face of adversity,” said Supervisor Chris Coursey, Chair of the Board of Supervisors. “Creating a commemorative artwork is a long-lasting opportunity for us to honor the values that we shared before the Tubbs and Nuns fires changed our county forever, and to provide a place for solace, reflection, and remembrance.”

According to a news release issued this week by Creative Sonoma, the Memorial Task Force of approximately seven members will consist of a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including representatives of families who lost loved ones in the fires, first responders, artists, and arts workers.

The Task Force will be drawn from across the county. An ad hoc committee, including representatives from Districts 1, 3 and 4, and the Creative Sonoma Advisory Board, will review the pool of applications, hold interviews as necessary, and recommend potential members to the Board of Supervisors for review and approval.

The preliminary goals for the memorial include:

• Create a place for acknowledgment, remembrance, gathering, and reflection;
• Create opportunities for community healing that acknowledge the community’s individual and collective grief and sense of loss; and
• Recognize that people have experienced and are processing grief and trauma in individual ways, and accommodate those differing paths as much as possible.

The duties of the Memorial Task Force are to:

• Finalize the work plan, including project goals and themes (the complete work plan is available on Creative Sonoma's webpage);
• Ensure that appropriate artists are invited to participate in the RFQ/RFP process;
• Support and participate in community engagement processes designed by the Task Force, staff and artist;
• Select finalists and a subsequent artist or artist team to receive the commission;
• Support the development of the project concept including reviewing design development as appropriate;
• Advocate for the project as it is being developed and when it is completed.

The Fire Memorial Task Force application is online here. Self-nominations are eligible.

The Memorial Task Force will meet no less frequently than bi-monthly at the Creative Sonoma office: 141 Stony Circle, Suite 110, in Santa Rosa. Additional meetings will be scheduled as needed based on the project workload.

Find more information on the Fire Memorial and the Task Force on Creative Sonoma's webpage.