photo credit: courtesy of Creative Sonoma
Artist Cliff Garten speaks during an introduction video hosted by Creative Sonoma.

Nearly a decade after the 2017 Tubbs Fire destroyed thousands of homes and killed over 20 people in Sonoma County, an artist has been selected to create a community memorial.

An online conversation with artist Cliff Garten was hosted by Creative Sonoma earlier this month. Fire Memorial Project Manager Karin Demarest says Garten was chosen from over 80 applications.

“He has an MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard. So he’s not just thinking about an object, he’s thinking about the entire place – how people move through it, how they gather, how they experience it over time. And his projects become spaces people can enter, not just something that they look at," said Demarest.

A task force helped to determine the place for the memorial.

“We invested a lot of time in finding just the right location. And we’re so happy that the site is at Nagasawa Park," said Demarest.

That’s a park in the heart of Fountaingrove, burned in the 2017 fires.

“We’re going to have a community engagement – three days when Cliff is gonna be in Sonoma County: May 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. We’re gonna have opportunities to meet in person and to hear from you," said Demarest. "And one of the reasons we selected Cliff is the way he listens to community and integrates that into the design."

During the online conversation, Garten shared images from a memorial he developed in Memphis, Tennessee to honor the 1968 Sanitation Strikers and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He says it included a series of listening sessions with the community.

“This is the way we honor community, and tell a story and tell a history, and leave a place that honors that legacy," said Garten.

Garten spoke about his hopes for the Sonoma County Fire Memorial.

“I’m very interested in making this memorial as a part of this fire affected landscape, and also as a new place in that landscape that we go to honor the people who lost homes, loved ones in this very significant environmental event," said Garten.

Demarest says it's significant the site is in a city park...

"...but the project is run by the County of Sonoma, so it’s a collaboration that to me mirrors the collaborations that happened at the time of the fire between the city and the county," said Demarest.

Details on the project are online at creativesonoma.org