Richmond’s mayoral candidates continued their slog to City Hall Tuesday night with yet another forum, discussing the arts in Richmond at Virginia Repertory Theatre’s November Theatre.
Richmond’s mayoral candidates continued their slog to City Hall Tuesday night with yet another forum, discussing the arts in Richmond at Virginia Repertory Theatre’s November Theatre.
With the Richmond Times Dispatch’s Michael Paul Williams moderating, there were some revealing disagreements, though none of the nastiness that has appeared at previous forums.
The candidates (minus Michelle Mosby, who missed her second straight forum but dropped a scathing attack ad on Joe Morrissey the same day) were asked about financial support for public art and the city’s Percent-for-Art program.
The city currently allocates 1% of the budget from Capital projects of $250,000 or more to go to fund public art.
Lawrence Williams said he’d try to raise that number to as high as 2%. Levar Stoney said 1% was appropriate but that he’d do his best as mayor to supplement public art funding from the private sector. Interestingly, Joe Morrissey said he supported the 1% allocation and would consider lowering the threshold despite the fact that he’s been critical of the program in the past.
“The one percent for the arts has worked in municipalities throughout the country,” he told the arts-centric crowd at Virginia Rep. “I’m not sure where we got that $250,000 threshold. It could be lower.”
But back in July when the City announced the plans for the Souhtside rings project, he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “I’m a supporter of the arts, but in this particular situation, I want to put the money into solely municipal needs, and then, only if there are available funds afterward, would we consider programs like 1 percent for the arts.”
Jack Berry supported the program as well but lamented the fact that the City didn’t better utilize VCU’s renowned sculpture school.
“Why is it that when you got to Charlottesville you see public sculptures all over town, but you don’t see that here?” Berry asked. “How is that we have best sculpture school in the country and you don’t see sculpture from VCU students and faculty dotting the landscape of Richmond?”
Jon Baliles also agreed that the program was important and pointed to an instance when he was on Council that the City actually forgot about it and he helped to bring it to their attention.
Another interesting exchange came on the topic of controversial murals and the city’s role in determining whether or not they’re appropriate for the public eye.
Williams stumbled through his answer.
“I’m a firm believer that you gotta let artists be artists,” he said to start. “Of course we need a Planning Commission or Arts Review Commission that, kind of censors it. Is that the appropriate word?”
An audience member answered, “No.”
The architect continued on with an answer about giving young people and artists the “freedom to express themselves.”
Stoney picked up the ball.
“I see no issue with being challenged by what I see walking around the city. I think that’s what I want in my community, I want to be challenged every single day. I want to see something every single day that maybe I had never seen before… I understand when people worry, but for me that worry would only be if it’s obscene.”
Morrissey admitted he made a mistake when he activated his district attorney’s office to pressure 1708 Gallery to remove a window painting back in 1990.
“I love the murals and it’s not just the murals that are peaceful and soothing but those that are provocative and challenging. They should be protected,” he said.
Berry pointed out Venture Richmond’s part in many of the murals around the city and Baliles talked about the RVA Street Art Festival, which he started with Ed Trask.
He said there were concerns about appropriateness and that some wanted to see and approve the art before it went up.
“Ed and I were like, ‘Look, these guys are coming in from all over the country and we’re not gonna pre-screen our art. But we can trust them to do what’s right.’” he said. “And that was helpful because what went down on the Canal Walk on the Power Plant building was fantastic, it’s still a tourist attraction to this day.”
All agreed on supporting the city’s many arts non-profits and VCU arts students who work with public school students. And almost everybody talked about bringing art to lower-income communities and getting the children in those communities to the arts. Stoney raised his idea of a “My RVA” card, which would grant free access to Richmond’s arts offerings for public school students. He talked about the idea in our interview with him here.
Baliles got some of the biggest applause at the end of the night when he talked about City Hall listening to the arts community rather than dictating to it.
“I don’t want to be like Austin, I don’t want to be like Portland. Richmond is unique Richmond and we need to be unique,” he said. “The RVA Street Art Festival, the Richmond Mural Project, First Fridays, they were not city initiatives. They were driven by you all. They were driven by the arts community. The City needs to get out of the way and get in the back of the wagon and drive these projects forward when other people come up with them.”
