In 6-foot-high, slightly offset white letters, the sign spells out the name made famous by Hollywood: “Cucamonga.”

A play on the Hollywood Sign, this sign is at Chaffey College in — where else? — Rancho Cucamonga. I wrote a little about it in November when I caught sight of it on a visit to campus.

Now completed with night lighting and landscaping, the sculpture was dedicated Tuesday.

Amy Maloof created “Props,” a Hollywood sign-style sculpture at Chaffey College. (Photo by John Valenzuela/SCNG)

Amy Maloof created “Props,” a Hollywood sign-style sculpture at Chaffey College. (Photo by John Valenzuela/SCNG)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

Wignall Contemporary Art Museum reopened Tuesday after a renovation. (Photo by John Valenzuela/SCNG)

The 42nd annual Student Invitational show is now at Chaffey College’s Wignall Museum. (Photo by John Valenzuela/SCNG)

Chaffey College’s Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art reopened Tuesday. (Photo by John Valenzuela/SCNG)



This Hollywood sign-style Cucamonga sculpture now graces Chaffey College. (Photo by John Valenzuela/SCNG)

Amy Maloof talks with friends about her “Cucamonga” sculpture. (Photo by John Valenzuela/SCNG)

“It’s fun, witty, a little cheeky, in the best way,” said Rebecca Trawick, director/curator of the adjacent Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Wignall was the focus of attention during Tuesday’s event, as the museum, established in 1972, reopened after a $2.7 million renovation funded by bond money.

There were speeches, live jazz that included an excerpt from “apostrophe” by former Chaffey student Frank Zappa — a nice touch — and three kinds of burgers, all of them made with black beans. Ehh, artists.

“Props” is the name of the Cucamonga sculpture. Amy Maloof is the artist. If her last name is familiar, she’s the granddaughter of the late woodworker Sam Maloof, whose Rancho Cucamonga home is now a museum.

Her artist’s statement points out that the Hollywood sign began as advertising for a housing development before becoming a symbol of the world’s movie capital.

The name Cucamonga originated with the Tongva and was employed, Maloof notes, by such personages as “Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Krusty the Clown and Bugs Bunny” — ehh, what’s up, doc? — to signify a place that was far away, mysterious and “perhaps even fictitious” due to its funny-sounding name.

Is Cucamonga any less ridiculous than Hollywood, she wonders, or less worthy than anywhere else in Southern California for renown? Her piece, she says, “embraces this grandness with humor and pride.”

“Hollywood” and “Cucamonga” have the same number of letters, she told me. But she had another inspiration: the hilltop sign spelling out “Springfield” on “The Simpsons.”

“I’m sure it was a spawn of Springfield,” she said. “I’ve never said that before. It’s a Matt Groening thing.”

Just then a crow cawed from a tree.

“This is Springfield too, the crow — caw, caw,” Maloof said, chuckling. “Cue nuclear plant noise.”

“Props” has a surprisingly long history. Maloof, then a student, fabricated the original version out of wood for an art show, “Inlandia,” in 2008. Response was so good that the Chaffey Art Committee, which supports public art on campus, raised $18,000 to commission a permanent version of the piece, including donations from the classes of 2009 and 2011.

Maloof made a version out of steel, but the letters lay for years on the ground inside a fence at the museum, as documented by a 2015 Chaffey Breeze article.

Money to install the letters on steel poles embedded in concrete (rather than braced with props, as Maloof had envisioned), and add lighting and landscaping, was not in the Art Committee’s budget. Installation ultimately cost $57,000, or more than double the cost of the art piece itself.

Ehh, bureaucracy.

The logjam was broken by the museum renovation, with Measure L bond funding paying to run electricity to new lampposts and lighting under the sign, assistant curator Roman Stollenwerk said.

Stollenwerk said he sees people interacting with the piece all the time. “It seems to be mostly standing next to it and having a friend take a picture. Because the piece is so large” — about 40 feet long — “it’s hard to take a selfie with it,” he said. “Some just take a photo of it.”

He added: “It is quite fun and impressive at night.”

John Machado, former chair of the Art Committee, praised “Props” as “a provocative and engaging symbol of our campus community, saying it “examines our place in the Southern California landscape and the mythology of our region.”

Trawick said the museum’s entry was reoriented to the south to better connect with nearby art buildings and a walking path — and now “Props.”

“Amy’s piece is so bold, vivid and iconic, it really provides a landmark for us,” Trawick told me. When people ask how to find the Wignall, she can now tell them it’s near the “Cucamonga” sign.

Inside the Wignall, the lobby, restrooms, kitchen and galleries were all upgraded. Movable partitions and LED lighting improved the space.

A teaching institution, the Wignall currently is hosting the 42nd annual “Student Invitational” exhibition, an honors program showcasing work created during the spring semester. It’s on view until May 9 and admission is free.

The museum was named for Rex W. Wignall, a former ag teacher and Chaffey director who died in 1967. His son, Rex S. Wignall, was in attendance Tuesday.

Henry Shannon, Chaffey’s president, gives props to “Props.” “I think it’s fantastic,” he told me. “It’ll be here for years to come. It’s a legacy sculpture, as I see it.”

Back at “Props,” the shy Maloof dutifully posed for photos with her sculpture. A friend, Chip Washington, told her playfully: “You misspelled ‘Claremont.’”

Some of the letters have visible rust from their years on the ground. “Cucamonga” pretty much has to be photographed head-on to avoid the lampposts awkwardly placed at either end. And why is there a concrete mow curb around a sculpture that is surrounded not by grass but by native plants?

Ehh, bureaucracy — oh wait, I already said that.

Maloof didn’t care for the exposed concrete pads under each letter and kicked mulch to cover the two pads under the first “C.” I have to say, the effect was vastly improved. Is there Measure L money for more mulch?

I asked Maloof what she’d like people to get from her piece.

“I guess fun. Or happiness,” she replied. “Don’t say that. I sound like the Dalai Lama or something.”

David Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday from Cucamonga. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, visit insidesocal.com/davidallen, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.