City Hall offers new public art work
December 13, 2007 at 9:47 am by Scott Henry in NewsAfter months of not much going on with Atlanta’s public art program – otherwise known as the red-headed stepchild of the parks department – suddenly City Hall has announced a list of new projects that will mean work, and income, for more than a dozen local artists.
At a time when frustrated arts advocates are threatening to sue Atlanta for mismanaging its own program, does the city’s announcement represent a craven attempt to buy off the arts community with public funds?
First, some background. As attentive CL readers know, we ran a story in October about a long-hidden study done by City Hall in which bean counters estimated that Atlanta’s public arts program might have been shortchanged as much as $3.6 million over the past few years.
In response to that revelation, a group of arts activists decided to file a lawsuit to force the city to account for the uncollected public arts money and to self-enforce its own percent-for-the-arts ordinance from now on.
The new public art projects include multidisciplinary works for 12 city parks; “gateway” sculptures for several Atlanta neighborhoods; and a mural design for the MLK natatorium.
“I’m pretty excited that they’re looking at putting art in parks around the city,” says activist Bill Gignilliat, adding, “But I’ll believe it when it actually happens.”
Despite the timing, Gignilliat doesn’t believe the city is trying to placate artists with the prospect of work. City Hall just doesn’t move that fast, he says.
Even if that were the intention, it doesn’t seem to be working. This week, both the Eyedrum artist co-op and Public Space Initiative, an advocacy group, announced their plans to become plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which is likely to be filed after the holidays.
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