Friday, June 8 -- A Tactical Ice Cream Unit, equipped with a 12-camera video surveillance system, political leaflets and frozen dairy products, will make a public appearance at the Southern Pacific Depot, 840 2nd St. in Davis, from 3 to 6 p.m. on Friday, June 8.

At the same time, UC Davis theatre and dance professor Larry Bogad will present a one-man work of performance art at the train station, and Las Vegas sculptor Stephen Hendee will unveil a science fiction-inspired installation.

The goings-on are part of a three-month civic arts project organized by the Richard L. Nelson Gallery at UC Davis with a $20,000 grant from the city of Davis Civic Arts Commission. Called "Temp Work," the project has brought the work of three other artists to the depot and surrounding rail yard since April 9. Hendee's installation, the last in the series, will remain on view through June 30.

Aaron Gach of Berkeley, a spokesperson for the Center for Tactical Magic, said the group will deploy its Tactical Ice Cream Unit to offer Amtrak passengers, along with the greater Davis community, "a full range of surveillance, propaganda and ice cream."

According to the group's Web site, the TICU conducts "acts of intervention that replace cold stares with frosty treats and nourishing knowledge."

Rather than generating its own propaganda, the Center for Tactical Magic gathers and redistributes materials produced by others.

"We try to give people the information they hunger for," Gach said.

Ice cream flavors for the Davis event have not yet been determined, but Gach said the TICU almost always stocks some version of a "bomb pop."

"We like patriotic-colored ice cream named after weapons of mass destruction," he said.

As the TICU carries out its three-pronged mission, Bogad will present a work of performance art. Bogad has worked as a writer and performer with groups such as Billionaires for Bush, Absurd Response, Reclaim the Streets and the Oil Enforcement Agency. His book, "Electoral Guerrilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements," was published by Routledge Press in 2005.

Hendee's installation will be unveiled in the former police substation next to the railroad station. Using materials ranging from corrugated plastic to fluorescent lights, Hendee creates glowing landscapes that resemble science-fiction film stage sets.

The "Temp Work" project has also featured the outdoor sculpture of Sacramento artist Dave Lane (exhibited April 9 through June 30), a digital installation by San Francisco artist Alan Rath, in which visual images peered out of the windows of one of the depot buildings (April 9 through May 5), and a pastel forest created by Davis artist Diana Jahns, installed in the same outbuilding (May 14 through June 2).

Other special events associated with the project included a midday "weed walk" along the railroad tracks in late April and an afternoon welcome reception for Amtrak commuters in mid-May.

The three-month project was curated by Renny Pritikin, director of the Richard L. Nelson Gallery and The Fine Arts Collection at UC Davis.

"The city of Davis wanted an exciting public art project," Pritikin said. "We wanted a tie to the community. It has been a win-win proposition all around."