Richmond, VA, is home to a number of amazing murals, galleries, and a few racist/historic statues, but an influx of reserved cash, intended specifically for public art projects, is up for grabs and th
Richmond, VA, is home to a number of amazing murals, galleries, and a few racist/historic statues, but an influx of reserved cash, intended specifically for public art projects, is up for grabs and the City wants you to tell them how to spend it.
The money in question, about $3.2 million, comes from the “1% fund.” The pot was built up by adding 1 percent of every capital project the city has undertaken – every time they build a school, jail, library etc., 1% of that budget goes into an account specifically for public art.
“Any big project is just putting money in there,” said RVA’s Public Art Coordinator Ellyn Parker at a public meeting held last night at the Science Museum of VA. She was the opening speaker for the conversation around what to do with the cash.
“Instead of just haphazardly spending it, the City of Richmond… wants to work with all of you to create a plan to see how we can move forward in the city and really create a great city for art,” Parker said opening the meeting.
About 40+ folks showed up, most of which fell into the 40+ age group. The crowd was also about 95% white. Just throwing that out there
After a brief introduction by Parker, two consultants with a history of managing city and state-wide public arts programs, Gail Goldman and Gretchen Freeman (dubbed the G-Force), gave an overview of their interest in the project.
“We’re focused on making sure Richmond is practicing the best standards that are in the field of public art on the national level,” Freeman said. “But also having a real menu of options moving forward in the next 10 years.”
With $3.2 million floating around, there’s an interesting menu just waiting to be made.
Freeman, like Parker, stressed the importance of the public’s voice on the issue, calling it “absolutely critical” that “everything in the plan really reflects what’s important to Richmond and what is unique in terms of the stories you want to tell.”
The presentation continued for some time with a slide show of other national and international public art projects shown for comparison and inspiration.
Stake holders from every part RVA’s arts community – DeeJay Gray from TheatreLAB, local muralist Nils Westergard, and many others – were in attendance and participated in different parts of the event.
The city has also opened an online questionnaire which you can fill out right now and make your own suggestions for what they should do with the cash.
Do it. Come on, freak’n do it.
It’s okay, I’ll wait.
Great, welcome back.
While the turnout compared to any other public meeting was impressive, I’m most curious to see how future events play out, and whether they will come to truly represent the more diverse parts of RVA besides any number of interested long-time Fan Rats Though there’s something to be said for people giving enough of a shit to show up, so take that people who didn’t attend.
Anywho, with $3.2 million comes any number of questions and ideas – allow me to wax poetic for a bit (with a little help from RVAMag founder Tony Harris) and talk some about possible options we’d like to see discussed as one of the leading voices for art and culture in RVA.
It’s unreasonable to think we have the perfect idea, because this really needs to be a city-wide collaborative project, but we just want to plant some seeds in your brain garden here real quick.
1 – One Big Project – One of the first slides shown to help inspire folks was a picture of Chicago’s famed “Cloud Gate” aka ‘The Bean.’ The mirror-mass was unveiled in 2006 and sits in the middle of Millennium Park in downtown Chi-Town. Designed by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, famous for installations around the world, The Bean was selected after a rigorous design competition. Built for about $11.5 million, it has since become a symbol of public art in Chicago and the world over. It really helped opened up the night’s dialogue about options from big to small.
But it also set a specific tone for what could come – and that’s not a good or bad thing.
Perhaps putting out an international call for installations (“Richmond’s got $3 million for public art, submit proposals here!“) wouldn’t be such a bad idea. We’ve already got a bunch of fantastic murals painted by a lineup of internationally known artists, why not throw all that money behind one big piece? The city could take submissions, the Public Arts Commission could pick the best 10, and we could put that up to a public vote.
The semi-democratic nature of the project could yield something both internationally recognizable and offer participation for all the city’s residents.
2 – Spread it Around – There are tons and tons (and TONS) of arts programs in RVA already. Why not take that $3.2 million and send it out as individual grants? Think of how many smaller projects we could end up with when that kind of doh gets injected into the process. Again, we’d be putting a decent amount of faith in the Public Art Comission’s judgement, but perhaps guidelines and expectations for the project could be put up to public debate and finally voted on.
Or maybe the grants themselves could live on a website where the public votes ye or nay.
I’ll take a moment to defend why I personally think having a group of folks vet projects before they go to the public is probably not the worst idea. As Mountain Dew’s ‘Hitler did nothing wrong’ debacle and Walmart’s ‘Send Pit Bull to Kodiak, Alaska’ pointed out, the internet is a terrible place and having a filter is maybe a good thing.
But I also love to watch things burn, so maybe we want a bit more of a loose-noose on these funds to see what fresh-hell RVA’s (or the world’s) creative community can come up with.
To be fair, as a town we’re so used to art projects being funded by corporate donors, wouldn’t it be great to see a project not paid for by cigarettes, credit card debt, or the coal/mining industry?
Sure, the bureaucracy of city funds might be an artist’s personal hellscape, but imagine someone building a giant monument reminding people how most of the public art and festivals in this town are funded by things that are killing or crippling us.
I joked with my boss about just giving the money to Banksy and seeing what he could come up with. With this city’s torrid history, financial connections, and white-washed Monument Ave., a little reminder where it all came from, in the most brutal way possible, might be a great thing.
That probably should have been another number…
3 – Watch Richmond Burn, Again! – give all the money to a radical artist and have them make something terrifying and wonderful. (see argument above)
4 – Throw the Money at the Bridge Park Idea and Make a Space for Ongoing Installations – For those unfamiliar, some local folks want to turn some of the old railway supports on the James into a park spanning the river, connecting Downtown with Manchester. I think the idea alone is brilliant, now imagine what could happen if we gave them $3.2 million and asked for a display area in the middle of the bridge where art could be showcased in the future.
I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the roof of the MET in NYC, but when they re-did their roof top they left space specifically for artists to do temporary installations throughout the year, providing an amazing platform as well as a bar.
We’re RVAMag, we’re down for putting a bar anywhere near art at all times, forever.
We’ll these are a few of my ideas, and I’m putting them out there to help get the discussion started. If you don’t like ’em, ask my boss to fire me, take a massive pay cut and take over my job.
There doesn’t appear to be another public meeting scheduled yet, but I’m sure there will be many more to come.
You can keep up with the RVA Public Art Commission on facebook here.
Even if you don’t make it to one of the future meetings, you should TOTALLY go fill out the survey and maybe check the box that says “burn this mother down.” (There probably isn’t a box that says that so feel free to photoshop one in)
