New downtown Santa Rosa walking trail honors local activists
As Santa Rosa artist Kristen Throop spent long months researching the history of local activists, she had a specific goal in mind. Now the whole community can see the results.
“For the past year I’ve been working on a public art commission for the City of Santa Rosa. It’s a walking trail through downtown which honors the work of 14 local activists,” Throop said.
“I've drawn a portrait of each activist and combined that with an audio recording which people can access with their smart phones,” she added. “The idea is to be able to walk the trail while listening to some amazing and wonderful stories about people who have worked hard to make our community better.”
The public launch of the project will be held Sunday with a presentation at the Central Santa Rosa Library, followed by a tour of the markers, bearing the portraits applied in decal form, along the pathway.
The path of 12 sidewalk markers stretches from College Avenue to Julliard Park. Each marker contains a portrait of one or two important activists from the community. Each portrait features a code that links to an online audio description of that person’s life and activism.
“Each person has achieved something unique. At the core of every story is a search for justice,” Throop said.
Throop will speak at the event, and the five activists being honored who are still living will take part in a panel discussion.
They are attorney Bernice Espinoza, LGBTQ rights activist Magi Fedorka, educator and origami expert Henry Kaku, disability rights activist Anthony Tusler and Charlie Toledo, director of the Suscol Intertribal Council.
For a complete list, including the deceased honorees, see the fact box with this story.
“At the conclusion of the event at the library, I will be leading a walking tour of the entire project,” Throop said.
The starting point of the trail is outside the entrance of the Central Santa Rosa Library, on the left as you turn to enter the library.
Extensive research is one of the artist’s trademarks. Between 2018 and 2022, Throop developed a body of art and writings inspired by a single painting by the French artist J.A.D. Ingres: his portrait of Pauline, the Princesse de Broglie, which he completed in 1853.
She exhibited that project at the Backstreet Gallery in Santa Rosa’s South of A Street (SOFA) arts district and later at the Hammerfriar Galley in Healdsburg.
For her trail-marker project, Throop teamed up with Santa Rosa’s Art in Public Places effort last year through the ArtSurround program, which paired artists with businesses, municipalities and nonprofits willing to host new public artwork.
ArtSurround was organized by Creative Sonoma, the public agency established in 2014 by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to support and promote the arts.
Of the 27 Sonoma County ArtSurround artists, nine received grants from Santa Rosa’s Public Art Program for their projects, said Jessica Rasmussen, arts specialist and project manager with the city.
Besides Throop, the artists are: Anna Wiziarde and Julian Billotte, MJ Lindo-Lawyer and Josh Lawyer, Nicole Jones, Barbie Watts, Mario Quijas and Dani Burlison.
Throop chose the activists to be honored with pathway markers and audio clips, and did her own research, Rasmussen said.
“It was totally Kristen Throop’s concept,” she said. “I think she did a really good job of reaching out into the community to identify who was going be highlighted in her project.”
To Kaku, 75, substitute teacher and origami artist, his inclusion in Throop’s project was a pleasant surprise.
“I was honored,” he said. “I have been doing origami for probably 70 years.”
Through his art, Kaku has participated in events held to promote understanding of Japanese Americans and their heritage.
You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.
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