By TROY CORLISS
So glad to see the question of “why we need a public art plan” popping up more and more in community discussion. In her recent editorial on the ant sculptures (Giant Ant Sculptures Invade Truckee, a My Shot published in October), Linda Lindsay touched on a very important component contained within every public art master plan, which is to provide a mechanism for community involvement.
Every public art master plan asks a series of questions that helps to define a structure for incorporating artwork into public spaces. The art plan purposefully falls short of defining specific artworks (we want to leave that task to the artists), yet it creates a holistic view of what art in public places means to us as a community. In essence, it is a topo map for our cultural/physical landscape. Every public art plan is unique and specific to its community, however, each one contains a few key elements:
• Goals and community priorities
• Locations and opportunities for public art
• Potential funding sources and collaborative funding mechanisms
• Program structure and staffing requirements
• Benchmarks and implementation milestones
• Policies and procedures concerning community involvement, artist selection, and collection management
For the last 25 years my career has focused on the design and creation of large-scale public art. I have worked with more than 60 public art agencies nationally, ranging from the largest and most well-recognized to those in very small rural communities. Although the demographics and the cultural objectives vary within each community, there are two essential ingredients underlying every well functioning public art plan:
1) There is a concentrated group of citizens who advocate, support, and foster the inclusion of art in public places.
2) The governing body that has the authority to incorporate and implement public art embraces and owns the art plan. In our case, this would be the Town of Truckee.
We have room to grow on both fronts.
I personally like Matt Parkhurst’s ant sculptures, however, let’s not lose sight of the fact that while we are talking about “what is and what should never be,” we (collectively) have never insisted on a plan for placing artwork. We could talk about the details of one project or another, but in doing so we are really missing the larger issue, which is that there is no framework or process for placing public artworks, or even having this discussion.
I look at the opportunistic approach that’s resulted in the last few artworks going up around town as small baby steps forward. But, I am also reminded of the many missed opportunities that are passing us by because we do not have a vision, or a well-defined plan for bringing artwork into our community. Shouldn’t we as engaged citizens insist on a master plan for incorporating artwork into our public spaces and then step forward to help make it happen?
