Fayetteville panel researching ‘percent for arts’ program; hopes to bring proposal to City Council

Joy Clark of Art Ventures adds her contribution Friday to a community collaborative textile project led by artist Jeffry Cantu in the Fay Jones Woods at The Ramble in Fayetteville. The city's Arts Council is exploring a proposal to create a 'percent for the arts,' which would dedicate a portion of the budget for city projects to public art. Visit nwaonline.com/221024Daily/ for today's photo gallery. 
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)
Joy Clark of Art Ventures adds her contribution Friday to a community collaborative textile project led by artist Jeffry Cantu in the Fay Jones Woods at The Ramble in Fayetteville. The city's Arts Council is exploring a proposal to create a 'percent for the arts,' which would dedicate a portion of the budget for city projects to public art. Visit nwaonline.com/221024Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)


FAYETTEVILLE -- A resident-led panel in Fayetteville wants to ensure art is meaningfully integrated into city projects, not just added as a cherry on top.

The city's Arts Council is working on a proposal commonly referred to in municipal governments as "percent for the arts."

The concept would dedicate a certain percentage of the budget for a capital project done by the city toward creating public art. City projects could include buildings, roads, trails, water quality measures or any other appropriate capital work.

Revenue for general capital projects comes from 40% of a 1-cent city sales tax. Voters in 2019 also approved bond issues for millions of dollars' worth of capital projects.

Several cities, such as Fort Collins, Colo.; Lawrence, Kan.; and Asheville, N.C.; have enacted percent for the arts programs. Philadelphia adopted the first such program in the United States in 1959, according to information compiled by Joanna Bell, Fayetteville's arts and culture director.

Percent for the arts programs generally have three components, Bell said. Dedicating a portion of a city project's budget for artistic elements is one. Cities also generally budget money to participate in arts and culture organizations. Additionally, they usually provide some kind of support to individual artists, she said.

The city has included arts components in its capital projects for years, but largely on an individual basis, not as part of a formal plan, Bell said. A percent for the arts policy would commit dollars for an artistic component to every eligible capital project, she said.

The Arts Council is working on presenting a resolution of intent for the City Council to consider that would greenlight development of a percent for the arts ordinance. Bell and Arts Council members are researching what other cities have done to incorporate into Fayetteville's proposal.

Exploring a percent for art program is included in the Rogers Cultural Plan adopted in spring. The program is listed among long-term goals in the plan to help encourage investment in public art in city building and infrastructure projects.

Rogers is not actively working on creating a percent for art program, said John McCurdy, the city's director of community development.

Rogers already incorporates art elements into its capital projects, such as Railyard Park or hiring artists and landscape architects to beautify the centers of roundabouts, McCurdy used as examples.

"I don't like the idea of, by ordinance, tying up a certain percentage of tax money to go to that type of program," he said. "I'd rather have the flexibility."

A percent for the arts program would serve as part of Fayetteville’s larger arts and culture master plan in development, Bell said. The city hopes to start shaping the plan with public input sessions this winter, she said.

The Arts Council discussed desired goals and outcomes for the proposed percent for arts program at its Wednesday meeting. Council member Emily Miller said she wanted the program to result in art becoming part of daily life in the city.

“What I would like to see is a program that brings art into very ordinary spaces, so it’s not this thing that we go to look at in this special place,” she said.


  photo  Members of the band Route 358 perform Friday along the pathway at The Ramble in Fayetteville. The city's Arts Council is exploring a proposal to create a 'percent for the arts,' which would dedicate a portion of the budget for city projects to public art. Visit nwaonline.com/221024Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)
 
 


What’s a percent for the arts program?

Percent for art policies generally apply to any municipal capital improvement project in which a percentage of the total project budget is set aside for public art. These policies also address how the money is to be spent on the acquisition and commissioning of public artworks.

In most cases, the municipal arts council is responsible for the administration of the money and the artwork, but a few cities leave the power in the hands of city government.

Source: Americans for the Arts

 



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