Would you sign on?

"I/We, ___________, advocate the use of distinctive architectural design and public art in the renovation of our major downtown transportation corridors as a way of branding and communicating the city of Winston-Salem as a place of creative commerce."

How many institutions, civic groups, neighborhood associations, business groups and individual citizens could we get to sign on to such a simple declarative statement as a way of telling political and transportation leadership that this issue and opportunity is important?

Fill in your name. Get groups you belong to to agree to this modest proposal as well. Share the signed statement with area elected officials, city transporation and planning departments, and the state DOT. Share a blank one with friends and neighbors. Moneys will be set aside to be spent on our thoroughfares. This is about how, not how much. Add your support before old habits are in place.

Public Art Party-Planning

The United Kingdom is using public art to celebrate an important event in the life of the nation: the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games. As part of a Cultural Olympiad which celebrates the other unique attributes of the sporting event's host country, UK Arts Councils and partners are sponsoring the "Artists Taking the Lead" project, bringing artists together with local communities to create twelve major pieces of artwork for the nine regions of England and one each in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. With a budget of $7.9 million - up to $731,000 per commission - they are "encouraging artists to use the nation as a blank canvas and showcase the UK's creativity to the world."

Even if we lack their budget, the process and goals of the UK plan are instructive to how Winston-Salem might use public art in its centennial party-planning for 2013. In the spring of 2009, UK artists are being solicited to submit 400-word proposals for ideas for an artwork. To be considered, the works must 1) be original; 2) reflect, and be inspired by, the location in which they will take shape; 3) leave a legacy for artists and communities beyond 2012; and 4) celebrate London 2012 and reflect the values and vision of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. One could imagine similar criteria for art here. It should reflect the neighborhood or cultural community in which it's sited - Buena Vista, Waughtown, Reynoldstown, Southside, and Mineral Springs all have a different feel than the Central Business District. The artwork should be of long-term value to the city by showcasing its appreciation for, and attracting further, quality art. And each piece of art could celebrate an aspect of Winston-Salem's story, qualities, or aspirations.

By this summer, four finalists for each of the twelve projects will be chosen in the UK and awarded $7300 to flesh out their ideas into formal proposals. Proposals will be chosen this fall for work to be finished by 2012. That's a four-year lead time from idea, to formal proposal, to selection, to installation. And the money for their work has already been pledged and is in place. In Winston-Salem we have four years until 2013. We have no monies assigned - yet. We have no public or private organization able to sponsor, or gather artist ideas and community feedback, or help with siting and red tape - yet. But if we could get just one new transcendent symbol for our city out of a process that asks artists to envision with us, we might indeed become not just a place best known for its quality product vices - both glazed and filtered - but also, without hesitation, "that City of the Arts."

Photo from London 2012 website. Thanks to SECCA's Mark Leach for the tip on public art work for London 2012.

If in Hickory, Clayton, and Asheville - why not here?

An editorial last week reported that the city of Winston-Salem is currently debating a structure for formally supporting public art in Winston-Salem, and that members of city government and the Arts Council's Public Art and Design Committee have varied ideas about how best to do that. The editorial endorses some form of support for public art, but shares others' worries about costs in these tight economic times.

According to this survey from the North Carolina Arts Council, there are already in the state a dozen different established programs for the procurement, siting, and maintenance of public art. Chapel Hill, Asheville, and Charlotte have a "percent for art" requirement in different public works that creates an income stream for public art acquisition. The North Carolina Zoo, Charlotte and Triangle transit authorities, Raleigh-Durham's airport and Greensboro's Public Library System have their own public art programs with varying budgets. The City of Hickory and the Town of Cary each follow a public art plan, and rely on occasional public and private grants to fund commissions.

Though some government entities have designated income streams to fund public art, most do not. But not having a dedicated fund for art doesn't mean that many cities in North Carolina aren't better prepared than Winston-Salem to accept the gift of public art when it is made. According to the state Arts Council, "The municipalities of Durham, Greensboro, Burlington, Concord, Davidson, Hendersonville, Hickory, Kinston, Rocky Mount, New Bern, Smithfield, Clayton, Salisbury, Waynesville, and Wilson, do not, as yet, have formal public art programs, but do have public art boards that commission public works of art on a project-by-project basis."

Why can't we have at least that in Winston-Salem, the self-proclaimed - with some justification - "City of the Arts" in North Carolina? If "chance favors the prepared mind," doesn't it make sense that a more beautifully adorned streetscape is favored in a city prepared to make it so? Shouldn't we organize for good things, gifts, opportunities, public art beauty, when times are lean, so that when times are right we will be prepared to "seize the day"? As a cheerleader for this effort, let me offer a sports analogy. If they had stopped preparing when the prospects looked bleak, would last season's Arizona Cardinals ever have become this season's opportunistic Arizona Cardinals? (as painful as that is to think about, being a Carolina Panthers fan...)

Yes, it would be great to have in place everything on a public art civic wish list: money to spend, professional leadership attracting top talent, organized community support and participation, and a shared vision for a city enriched by public art. Agreeing on the importance of that vision and beginning to organize for it are steps we can take now as a city. These are more character decisions than economic ones. For what do we wish to be known, to ourselves and others? Winston-Salem has been blessed to have many art resources - schools, galleries, an art district with shops and eateries - most of which have happened through the hard work and the philanthropic largesse of private individuals. It's time we took ownership as a city of a part of their gift. What's important to us as a community will be known by where we act, and where we fail to act.

The mission of the North Carolina Arts Council is to make North Carolina a better state through the arts. The council nurtures and supports excellence in the arts, and provides opportunities for every North Carolinian to experience the arts. A division of the Department of Cultural Resources, the Arts Council serves as a catalyst for the development of arts organizations and facilities throughout North Carolina with grant funding and technical assistance.

Guess Which City

Here's a job advertisement just received from public art advocates in a North Carolina town looking to build on its cultural advantages. Take a guess: where in North Carolina might such an effort exist?

"X" seeks an entrepreneurial and visionary leader for the position of Executive Director. In fulfillment of its mission to “promote, inspire, encourage and support visual arts for uplifting the human spirit in the community,” "X" commissions public art, organizes exhibitions of public art, presents educational art programs, and supports community arts events with investments of artistic, financial and volunteer resources.

The Executive Director will provide vision for the fulfillment of our organization’s artistic mission. In collaboration with our Board, the Executive Director will identify and prioritize opportunities for new art commissions and programs; identify and recruit artists to participate in competitive selection processes; recruit financial and human resources; and implement commissions and programs. Experience in the management of public art projects; recruitment and organization of volunteers; and fund-raising through grants, contracts, and personal solicitations are required.

The Executive Director will work with the our Board to develop and implement a strategic plan that will address the opportunities and challenges of a community experiencing dynamic growth, one that values its history while welcoming national acclaim as one of the best places to live in the United States. The Executive Director will develop creative partnerships throughout the community – with the town government, private corporations, schools, and non-governmental agencies – to engage personal participation and financial investment in the visual arts.

Now one might think that such an endeavor would be happening in a town many call a "city of the arts," a town that hosts the flagship arts educational institution in the state's university system, a town that boasts the newest member of the state's art museums and another facility hosting a premier collection of American art. The fact that same town has a thriving downtown arts district with galleries, lofts, shops, and restaurants - and is home to the first local arts council in America - would have you nodding affirmatively that that surely sounds like something a town like that would be doing.

But that's not happening in my town, Winston-Salem, the fourth-largest in the state. Instead look to Cary, which a generation ago was a 10,000-person one-stoplight bump on the back-road trip from my dorm in Chapel Hill to see friends in Raleigh. Cary is the fastest-growing suburb in the state, so fast in fact (over 120,000 now, half a Winston) that not too long from now folks may talk about flying into Raleigh-Cary, not just Raleigh-Durham. Befitting a town that sees its best days as both now and in the future, Cary - with a public art plan and the help of Cary Visual Art, Inc., the group in search of a Director in this ad - is intentionally planning beauty and inspiration as part of its rapid growth and ongoing community re-imagining.

In Raleigh-Cary, each community, Raleigh and Cary, has an organization and a plan to accept, site, acquire, and maintain public art. In Winston-Salem, neither Winston nor Salem do. What we are left with here is the "-". Would that we could fill in this blank.