According to Sumathi Reddy of the Baltimore Sun, there's an interesting arts issue brewing in the local Arts community as the Baltimore city council contemplates legislation that would mandate one-percent of public construction projects for public art. The one-percent for the Arts is a very old tradition by now in many American cities. All of the lessons, the how-to's, and the tried-and-true ways to make public art first and foremost "public" are by now established and a good way for Baltimore to take the lessons learned from other cities and march forward a little better prepared.
I do not think a nine-member Public Art Commission being in charge — which would select the artists and artwork and allocate funds — is the only way to run a one-percent for the Arts effort. If implemented as the only way to approve public art, then it is in fact elitist and removes the public from public art. There, I've said it.
One solution is to introduce the public into the public art selection process. Some states (such as Florida, I believe) did this when adopting their statewide percent for the Arts programs. The public art to be acquired for their state buildings is chosen by a selection committee drawn from the people who will actually work in the building (and live with the art) - not by a state arts commission or an academic arts panel. This most egalitarian and democratic of processes for choosing art — by the people who will actually live and work with the art — is a very progressive step toward democratizing the process of public art. This removes the process somewhat from the hands of selection committees and people who can be (in some cases) so far removed from "the public" that their decisions often seem to deliver either yawns or astute controversy, but little "public" to public art.
"I would very much not want to see us get timid because of the heat of the controversy that has been generated by the piece in front of the train station," said Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum. "If we intend to make this a place for living art in a public way, we have to accept and welcome the notion that not everybody is going to be happy and that is actually a good sign and we should celebrate that." I agree with Gary Vikan, but in the "everybody" who is not going to be happy, Baltimore should also include arts commissioners, arts panelists, museum directors, and even artists - not just the public.
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