At a time when Manhattan Beach public walls are bursting with artwork (from photography to painting) there's one wall in the city that, at least for now, remains very empty. 

A proposed "digital art wall" at City Hall in Manhattan Beach has failed to garner bids within its $250,000 budget, and its future is currently uncertain. The Manhattan Beach City Council is slated to discuss the future of the wall at Tuesday night's meeting. 

The project was conceptualized as an LED display wall that would showcase digital artwork on a rotating basis throughout the day. (The wall in question is on the south side of the City Hall lobby.) As planned, the wall surrounding the digital display would be reinforced to create the necessary substructure to support the weight and connectivity needs of the display as well as achieve a "cohesive look for both the upstairs and downstairs lobbies," according to the city.

Once the display was installed and operational, an art grant would be created to allocate small sums of money from the Public Art Trust Fund for artists to create and submit digital content for view.

The city put the digital display project out for bid in November and December 2023 and received no bids. The city tried again in March 2024, and received one bid, from Stallworth Construction and Management Corporation, for $375,590 - well over the project budget of $250,000. 

City staff has recommended that the City Council reject that bid on Tuesday night, and then decide whether to send the project out for new bids, or to consider project alternatives.

The funding for the digital wall, like Manhattan Beach's other public art pieces, would come from the city's Public Art Trust Fund. That fund has been created through a dedicated 1% fee on certain residential and commercial development projects, and monies spent from that fund do not impact the city's general fund.