In a surprise move in a recent Ft. Worth City council meeting, Mayor Mike Montcrief suggested that the City Council consider cutting from 2% to 1%, a loss of aproximately 2 million and a reduction that would be in effect for 5-6 years. This funding supports not only public sculpture and murals, but also helps support many performance groups in the area. I was wondering if anybody knew of any studies available that showed the positive effects of public art on the community that could be used in the campaign to save this funding. Thanks for any help....

-- Claude Whitscell (clawdayo@yahoo.com), September 27, 2003

Answers

I have not found any such study. In fact, our commission is attempting to create an impact fee. Without success. We have been told not now. If you find any information to support your "don't reduce cause", we would be interested in receiving the same information, as it might help our cause of initiating an impact fee for public art.

-- Karen Bell-Patten (kpatten@netprg.com), October 17, 2003.

Do you know Antoni REMESAR's book "Public Art: a Challenge in Urban Regeneration", or any other writtings of his investigations? he structure various important ideias to follow. You can find this kind of approaches to your problem in various documents (PDF format), if you look for CERPolis - "Public Art Observatory" (Antoni Remesar is the Director). I hope this will help...

-- Telmo Lopes (telmomail@mail.pt), November 30, 2003.