Monday, October 1, 2007
News Arts advocate wants city to cough up funding
Posted by Mara Shalhoup on Mon, Oct 1, 2007 at 7:08 PM
To elevate Atlanta's public art to the standards of art installations in other cities, Bill Gignilliat has a plan: Require that the city fund the arts as promised.
Gignilliat, co-founder of the nonprofit Public Space Initiative, says he intends to lobby Atlanta officials to make good on an aging and, some say, seldom-invoked city ordinance. The ordinance states that 1.5 percent of all the cost of all city-funded construction projects — sidewalks, streets, government buildings, etc. — be set aside for public art. Much of that money, however, has not been collected, according to arts advocates and city consultants.
PUBLIC ART: More money for the arts could mean that Atlanta could receive funding on par with such cities as Seattle (above).
(Photo by Ken Edelstein)
This month, Gignilliat will draft an amendment that he says will clear up the confusion surrounding how the percent-for-arts funds should be captured — and would make it impossible for future funds to be squandered. "For as long as we can remember, the excuse was, 'We don’t know what’s eligible, we don’t know what’s not eligible, we don’t know where the money is,'" Gignilliat says. "Cities have to make a policy decision that this [percent-for-arts ordinance] is in their best interest. It’s done in L.A. It’s done in New York. It’s done in San Francisco. It’s done in Portland, Seattle, etc."
Myra Reeves, spokeswoman for the city's Office of Cultural Affairs, told CL in August that the city is "working toward securing all funds that are eligible for that program." That effort came at the direction of the mayor, Reeves said.
Gignilliat has seem some past success while lobbying Atlanta City Council on arts issues. Earlier this year, City Council passed an ordinance he had drafted that designates Freedom Park as the city's first official art park.
Of course, finding support for an amendment that will require the city to cough up cash likely will be more difficult than building enthusiasm for an art park.
"Whether or not we can get this one passed, I don’t know," Gignilliat says.
Comments (2)
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How about they "cough up" some sculpture that doesn't look like a scrap yard or paintings that don't look like something my dog "coughed up"?
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