End of Process Means Beginning of This Rainbow

Judy Garland's well-known "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" tune will have a physical representation on the Sony lot as early as March 2012, in the form of a 94 foot-wide by 188 foot-high rainbow sculpture on the Sony lot.

The proposed rainbow sculpture that will fulfill Sony Pictures Entertainment's public art requirement as mandated by the city is the result of an extended process that happened over a period of years, said Christine Byers, Public Art & Historic Preservation Coordinator for Culver City's Cultural Affairs Department.

"We've been talking about doing a project for a couple of years," Byers said. "It's a long, drawn-out process."

The Art in Public Places Program—a city ordinance—requires commercial construction to provide for public art as part of the approval process for development projects in the city, and has been in place since 1988. Sony had developed several projects over the past 10 years or so, Byers said, which involved getting as many as 18 different permits that fell under the requirements for the public art program.

"They've been tracking it with me," Byers said.

With the most recent projects—an couple of office buildings and a parking garage in the immediate neighborhood near Motor Avenue and Culver Boulevard completed by 2009, it was time to develop a new project.

"There was a mutual interest that it be meaningful," said Keith Weaver, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at Sony. Artist Tony Tasset was chosen by Sony and came up with the rainbow concept, which will stretch over the studio at Madison Avenue.

“This project presented a tremendous opportunity to connect present and past,” said Tony Tasset in a press release provided by Sony. “A rainbow provided a bridge both physically—arching across a section of the lot—and symbolically through its connection to specific films like ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ shot on the lot, and to light itself.”

Byers said that neighbors to the studio were initially concerned that the rainbow would light up at night: "It will not be because rainbows are a daytime phenomenon," Byers said. She added that the design seemed particularly appropriate for the studio lot, which was the former home of MGM.

"In a way, it's something so obvious, it's surprising nobody thought of it before," Byers said of the concept.

Added Weaver: "It is relevant to the very historic lot that we work on. It's something for the masses and to that end, I think it pays homage to the rich history of the city as well as the lot."