The East Palo Alto Community Archive (EPACA) Heroes & Legends project will implement a permanent public artwork in the city of East Palo Alto at Cooley Landing Park. The East Palo Alto Community Archive invites artists to respond to the dynamic history of East Palo Alto, interpreting its unique past, present, and future aspirations through a public art installation that will resonate with and celebrate the community’s multifaceted identity—an identity rooted in power, change, and community.

The Heroes & Legends public art commission is a project of the East Palo Alto Community Archive (EPACA) and was made possible through a grant award from the State of California’s State Coastal Conservancy with delivery by Dyson & Womack. The mission of the EPACA is to collect, share, promote, celebrate, and preserve the unique history of the East Palo Alto community for future generations. East Palo Alto is a community of cultural and economic empowerment, a place where memory and resilience shape its future, and where residents learn from the past to collectively imagine the city’s next chapter. The EPACA seeks to ensure that the history of East Palo Alto is both a source of inspiration and a tool for future development, strengthening the connection between past, present, and future generations.

Cooley Landing Park in East Palo Alto presents a unique opportunity for public art to tell the story of grassroots community leaders who founded and developed the City of East Palo Alto. East Palo Alto’s long-standing efforts to self-empower and attain equitable access to resources continue to shape the city today. However, many of the Latinx, Pacific Islander, and Black leaders who laid the foundation for these successes remain unrecognized in public spaces. This public art commission seeks to change that, ensuring these voices and contributions are acknowledged and that the history of success in the community is celebrated.

Too often, the mainstream narrative told about East Palo Alto is one of trauma and perceived deficiencies, overlooking the community’s strength, diversity, and the wealth the community has always possessed—its people, culture, and deep sense of belonging. By telling these stories at Cooley Landing Park, we expect to 1 reclaim and amplify these stories through public art that is both recognizable in its connection to East Palo Alto’s incorporation story and reflective of its everchanging nature while fostering ownership in this remarkable public space.

By centering themes of resilience, diversity, and love, the artwork at Cooley Landing Park will elevate the experiences of East Palo Alto’s frontline workers, entrepreneurs, activists, and organizers. The installation will embody the community’s intergenerational bonds, where family means no one is left behind, and opportunity still exists, though not without vigilance and continued activism. It will acknowledge the grief and loss felt by those displaced yet maintain the dignity of their connection to East Palo Alto, honoring those who return like a pilgrimage to remember and reconnect.

Cooley Landing Park, situated on the San Francisco Bay Trail adjacent to the MROSD-owned Ravenswood Open Space Preserve at one end of the planned Bay to Sea Trail, is an accessible open space that already engages and inspires many visitors from diverse backgrounds. With a walking trail running along its length and the newly built Cooley Landing Education Center, a 3,900-square-foot community building used for workshops and educational activities, the park offers a landscape that is calm, expansive, and full of potential for meaningful artistic interventions. It is a place where interconnection, solidarity, and rootedness can be visually and experientially represented.

The Artist or Artist Team selected for the Cooley Landing Park project will be encouraged to explore a variety of approaches, from interactive installations woven into the walking trail to sculptural works that can act as focal points within the landscape. Materiality and form should harmonize with the peninsula’s natural surroundings, with an emphasis on durability and environmental sensitivity. The Artist or Artist Team will work collaboratively with the project team and the community, drawing from oral histories and lived experiences to shape how the art engages people on-site. One primary goal of the commission is to support ownership and belonging at Cooley Landing Park by creating inclusive outdoor spaces that reflect the perspectives of BIPOC and other historically underrepresented communities.

To inform the artwork’s conceptual and aesthetic foundation, artists will have access to the East Palo Alto Community Archive, which houses invaluable historical and cultural resources. This research phase, combined with a robust community engagement plan, will guide the design and development of the final artwork(s) to ensure that it reflects and represents the community’s heritage and aspirations. Through thoughtful design, the artwork should drive meaningful engagement, elevating Cooley Landing Park as an accessible and inclusive public space that celebrates and honors the diverse voices within East Palo Alto. The project should reinforce the idea that East Palo Alto is an asset to the region, its people are an asset to the world, and the community’s spirit of love, family, and empowerment endures.

Applications are due April 30, 2025 at 11:59 PM, and must be electronically submitted to Dyson & Womack through the online submission platform at: www.dysonwomack.com/epaca