Arts Commission Cold To Council Reworking Public Art Fund

Nashville’s city council is considering a bill to ensure money for public art is distributed faster and more broadly around Davidson County. But the Metro Arts Commission says it’s already working to do as much, and the bill would actually slow it down.

For the last nine years, Metro has set aside one percent of bonds for construction projects to fund public art.

But Councilman Charlie Tygard says the Arts Commission, which is in charge of disbursing those funds, has been slow to get in gear. To date it’s only installed one major project, called Ghost Ballet, at the foot of Broadway.

“The program is woefully slow and has gotten bogged down, but the main thing is it’s leaving out all areas of the community – all projects that are now on the drawing boards or on the ground are downtown-area projects.”

Tygard’s bill would divide the bulk of the fund among each of Metro’s nine school districts.

But Metro’s Arts Commission says the bill would actually make things worse. Commission Chair Jane Alvis says she shares Tygard’s goal of funding art across the county.

While that’s taken longer than she had hoped, Alvis argues the program is close to speeding up. She says new mandates from council will only complicate that effort.

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Nashville’s Arts Commission says the city’s public art program could soon accelerate. But a Metro Councilman says after nine years, results are past due.

Since its inception in 2000, Metro’s public arts program has installed one major project and approved two more. And it’s now reviewing proposals for several smaller pieces. That’s all in the downtown area.

Councilman Charlie Tygard is sponsoring a bill to spread most of the two million dollar fund to pay for art projects in every school district.

Arts Commission Chair Jane Alvis admits the process has been slow, but says getting it right is extremely labor intensive.

“You have to go everywhere from writing a contract to working with engineers to put it up, and everything you can imagine in between, all with much citizen input.”

Alvis says the latest project, five artistic bike racks downtown, will be a model for implementing several designs in different places as part of one project. Alvis says it plans to start similar projects around the county, without any law to make it so.