NORTHAMPTON — The city’s Arts Council has rejected an artist’s proposal to erect a large sculpture in Pulaski Park, with members saying they need time to develop a policy on how to handle art gifted to the city.
“The proposal highlighted a gap in our process,” said George Myers, the council’s chairman. “We haven’t worked out a process, and there’s nothing right now that says what to do if someone came to us cold with a piece of art.”
The council is charged with defining and implementing the process for public art.
The almost 9-foot-tall steel sculpture, created by Becket artist Ann Jon, was proposed to be on loan to the city and situated in the cafe area of Pulaski Park for one year. Jon requested a $1,000 honorarium be placed on the sculpture, called Arch II, with a potential purchase price of $50,000.
Brian Foote, executive director of the Northampton Arts and Culture Department, said the request to place the sculpture in the park is not moving forward. He said that the public needs a chance to propose its own art, and that the financial backing due to the requested honorarium was too uncertain.
“Just because someone wants to put their art in a public space doesn’t mean we have to agree,” Foote said. “When the council is looking to install public art, they first identify a place for the art and then fundraise the required capital for an RFP (request for proposals).”
The council opens applications from local artists each fall and spring during its grant periods, where artists may receive funding for smaller projects in the city. A recommendation from the public arts subcommittee or a community request can also get the council to look into creating a call for submissions, said arts council member Stephen Petegorsky.
“We have worked hard to put procedures in place that administer calls for public art,” Petegorsky said. “That should be a competitive process.”
When the council makes a call for proposals, a jury including arts council and community members meet to judge the integrity of the art. Finalists are then required to present their art to the council.
The Arts Council is looking into creating a process for gifted art, and will begin that discussion at the next public arts subcommittee meeting. A date and time for that meeting will be determined at the next Arts Council meeting, Tuesday at 7 p.m., in the City Hall Hearing Room.
“We’re looking at examples from other municipalities like Austin, Texas, on how they deal with loaned and donated art,” Foote said. “The subcommittee will get together and then return to the larger council with some recommendations of codified policy for gifted art.”
The committee does not have any concrete ideas at the moment on how it will handle gifted art, Foote later added.
Both council members interviewed agreed with Foote’s sentiments that a process for public art will need to be established.
“We just need to sit down and say what kind of process and procedures we could have in place when someone offers us art,” Petegorsky said.
Myers said that letting an artist dictate the terms of a public art installation without any community submissions would violate any “fair and open process” the council usually goes through when it creates a call for proposals.
“It would be unfair for us to take on a project without giving other people the opportunity to weigh in and have their own work seen,” Myers said.