Student wins City of Boise public art commission

Grace Ott with her sculpture, "One Man's Trash," installed in downtown Boise as part of the city's Art Port program. Photo by Dayna Anderson.

When art student Grace Ott opened the email announcing she'd been selected for the City of Boise's public Art Port program, she was midway through her shift as a monitor in the Center for the Visual Arts metal lab. Surrounded by anvils, hammers and work benches, she burst into tears.

"I was overwhelmed," Ott said. "It felt so meaningful to be recognized, to have the city choose my work. When I decided to go back to school for an art degree, a lot of people questioned it. To be able to show that the city I live in has a sculpture out there that they paid me for [$4,000 for a two-year loan] is incredible." Ott's piece is installed on Grove Street between 10th and 11th Streets.

She built her sculpture, "One Man's Trash," from repurposed steel, found metal, aluminum and a touch of spray paint. It depicts a Cooper's hawk, a raptor native to the Intermountain West, perched on its nest atop a 138-pound pile of trash. The sculpture is Ott's response to a statistic from the City of Boise's Climate Action Roadmap: The average Boise household produces 138 pounds of waste each month.

Ott drew inspiration from research showing that local landfills introduced birds of prey to help control seagull populations. She chose the Cooper's hawk, a species now adapting to human-altered landscapes, as her central image.

A pathway for emerging artists

The Art Port program offers emerging artists hands-on experience in creating public art in Boise. It's a collaboration between Boise State's sculpture program, the city's Arts & History department, Public Works, Capital City Development Corporation, the Guho Corp and Okland Construction. Projects follow themes tied to Boise's climate action goals, inviting artists to consider sustainability and connections to the natural world. The program has an exclusive relationship with Boise State's ART 334: Assembled Form course taught by Associate Professor Lily Lee. Students develop and submit formal proposals as part of their classwork.

Hannah Williamson, city public art project coordinator, works with Lee and her students, guiding them through the public art process, "giving them resources to build strong proposals, learn real-world project management skills and prepare for future opportunities in public art," Williamson said.

Grace Ott during the installation of her piece. Photo by Dayna Anderson.

A community panel chose Ott's proposal from all of the student submissions for its clarity and craftsmanship as well as its emotional impact, Williamson said, and the way her design "turned data into a powerful story about our relationship with the environment."

Ott said she hadn't considered creating public art before the assembled form class. "That class is very important, especially for sculpture students, as an opportunity to get their work out into the world. Even if you're not selected, you get the experience of conceptualizing an idea and preparing a professional submission," Ott said. Even if their work is not selected, students complete the sculpture and are able to submit it to other public art calls and networks.

The making of "One Man's Trash"

Ott estimates that it took her around 100 hours of hands-on work to create the sculpture. While building the piece, she juggled five classes, four different studio mediums and her job tending bar. "It was about an 80-hour week if you counted everything," Ott said. "I didn't even count eating or sleeping." Despite the challenges, Ott earned As in all of her classes.

Originally from Orlando, Florida, she earned a journalism degree from Florida State University before moving to Boise in 2023. She is pursuing an art degree with specializations in sculpture and art jewelry/metalsmithing. Her BFA show is planned for fall 2026.
Ott describes her art as "interdisciplinary - anything I can get my hands on that's 3D." Though she once worked as a bench jeweler and apprenticed at a commercial jewelry company, she said Boise State's program helped her rediscover art as an expressive, experimental practice.

"The professors treat you like a peer in the space. They care and want you to succeed," she said. A sculpture course with Flint Weisser, adjunct art faculty, inspired her to become a double major in metals and sculpture. She hopes to perhaps become a professor of art one day and to own a cocktail bar.

"Grace is a wonderful student and artist," Weisser said. "She has a wry sense of humor and a razor-sharp eye for design. Her greatest strength is in taking in the details of a topic and utilizing that as a major organizing principle of the work."

Detail image of "One Man's Trash." Photo by Dayna Anderson.

Craft and creation

Ott favors 3D improvisation over sketching and pre-planning. "I don't brainstorm on paper. It constrains me," she said. "I like to stumble and find processes that wouldn't come unless I was experimenting."

At home, she shares a workshop with her partner, Cameron, a fellow welder and fabricator. Together, they build objects for functional use, everything from furniture to motorcycle parts. She's rebuilding a classic 1980 Yamaha XS650.

"The bike is in one million pieces right now," Ott said. She plans to cast new parts out of aluminum in the near future.

Ott works full-time as a bartender in downtown Boise. Inspired by Erica Moody, a metal artist known for making elegant functional objects, Ott has also invented her own custom bar tools. They include a copper bar spoon and sterling silver garnish holders. Making a fine cocktail, she said, is an art form unto itself.

She looks forward to hosting pop-up art and cocktail events around the Treasure Valley to promote creative work in vibrant spaces.

"I love when I'm able to have a conversation about art," she said. "An integral part of art is community."

Find more of Ott's work on Instagram at @iroirobycherry
where she documents her sculptures, jewelry and metalwork. Her bar-related musings and events can also be found on Instagram @drinksbycherry.

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