On a sweltering Sunday afternoon at the very end of August, I had a chance to visit Brea Gallery’s exhibition, “Mapping the Landscape: A 50 Year Dialogue with Art + the Community,” with my family. We had read online that there would be free admission to the art gallery on the Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend  if we mentioned the words “Fresh Air” at the reception desk. The show was free since the city-sponsored gallery  was celebrating its current Fresh (AIR) artist-in-residence, Cody Lusby, through a weekend program in which visitors could collaborate on postcard-making activities with the artist. I appreciated the event, but enjoyed the gallery’s exhibition even more. The show, “Mapping the Landscape,” highlighted works from different sculptural artists who have all contributed to the City of Brea’s Art in Public Places Program. This piqued my interest and  made me want to learn more about the public art initiative, while also inspiring me to search for the various outdoor sculptures located throughout Brea.

Established in 1975, Brea’s Art in Public Places Program has existed for 50 years and has the reputation of being one of the “first art in private development programs in the state,” according to the city’s website. The way it works is that private developers (residing in Brea) commission sculptures to display outdoors. These artworks are then put through an extensive review process by the city, and once approved, are installed in publicly visible areas for people to enjoy.

“Through this initiative, private developers in Brea are required to install permanent outdoor sculptures that are accessible for the public to experience and enjoy,” reads the museum wall text at the start of the  “Mapping the Landscape” exhibition.

I learned through reading the program accompanying the Brea Gallery show that the Brea City Council started this review process in 1984, when a city-sponsored “Art in Public Places” manual (APP for short) was made to establish requirements for developers. This APP Manual, which is available online and includes requirements on sculpture ownership, maintenance responsibilities, and a detailed breakdown of the sculpture approval process, has been revised and updated in the years since it was established. The most current version was approved in 2021.

Fortunately, for those of us interested in observing Brea’s public art sculptures, there are at least two different interactive maps available online that have been designed to make it easier to locate the over 195 sculptures that have been created since the city’s outdoor collection first started. The map that I thought was the easiest to navigate can be found at Brea’s Art in Public Places.com, a website established by Dena Sommer and Terry Sullivan. The reason I liked their MapHub map so much was that it divided the City of Brea into four different color-coordinated sections for four different driving tours, with little dots corresponding to outdoor pieces in each area of the city. I could then click on the dots dispersed across the city map to distinguish between the Art in Public Places pieces and companion pieces.

The second online interactive map of Brea’s sculptural art installations that I thought was useful can be accessed  through the City of Brea website.

I found each piece in Brea’s Art in Public Places Program to be unique to this area of North Orange County. The oldest sculptures in Brea date back to the mid-to-late 1970s, while the most contemporary ones were installed in the early to mid-2000s to the present day.

The week after visiting the “Mapping the Landscape” exhibit, I took some time to check out the public art sculptures by driving north from Fullerton  up Brea Boulevard. Just driving into the downtown area on this street alone, I spotted 21 different pieces by artists including Sergio O’Cadiz, Joan Carl, Robert Holmes, Karen Heyl, Aris B. Sherwood IV, Carlos Terres, Marsh Scott, Guy Angelo Wilson, Laddie John Dill, Gregory Hawthorne, Marsh Scott, Cheryl Ekstrom, Meg Cranston, Essie Pinsker, Charles O’Perry, Gerard Basil Stripling, and Archie Held.

Some of the more notable sculptures in the Northeast area of Brea include “Orange Grove Fountain” by Meg Cranston on the south side of Birch at Walnut, and “The Brea Angel” by Cheryl Ekstrom on the northwest corner of Brea Boulevard and Birch near the Regal Cinema. I remember seeing water in the “Orange Grove Fountain” during the summertime when I was growing up and was in the area to see the $1 family movies at Regal Cinema with family and friends.

North of Central Avenue on Brea Boulevard is another really unique  public art piece titled “Sunburst” by Sergio O’Cadiz, which is a 16-foot-tall pillar. It  appears both ancient and  modern at the same time, with a human-esque face in the center of a sun, symbolizing Cadiz’s passion for Chicano culture and lost Mexican civilizations. One of the more contemporary pieces of public art on the southeast side of Brea is a multi-colored  art installation made in 2022 titled “Pollination” by Dixie Friend Gay, which consists of a mosaic wall highlighting plants native to Southern California, with three fantastical flower and seedpod sculptures situated near the mural. Public art sculptures, such as these, help bridge the gaps between Brea’s past and present, beautifying suburban neighborhoods and industrial areas in the process.

With over 195 sculptures commissioned over the past fifty years, Brea has one of the largest civic art collections in California, so the next time you’re driving through the city just north of Fullerton, keep an eye out for contemporary public art sculptures with plaques next to them.

Also, “Mapping the Landscape: A 50 Year Dialogue with Art + the Community” is open through September 19, 2025, at the Brea Gallery located within the Brea Civic Center.

Admission to the exhibit will be free during its closing reception on September 19 from 4 to 6 pm.
To learn more about Brea’s Art in Public Places Program, visit https://www.breaartgallery.com/breas-art-in-public-places.