Hey Lauren,

I wanted to share a text/interpretation that our Law Dept. provided us a few years ago.

As the Baltimore’s Arts Council and Events Office, we conduct a handful of public festivals (Artscape, Light City, Baltimore Book Festival) throughout the year, and we commission many temporary sculpture and installations for these events, but we have not utilized Percent for Art Funds to support festival artwork.

Meanwhile, there is a long-running community organized nature-art show in a public park every year that is entirely volunteer-run and cannot fundraise to run the project. We approached the Law Dept. to request if we could use Percent for Art funds to support the event by providing participating artists with stipends. To our surprise, we received a very favorable interpretation of the ordinance that allows us to do this.

To this point, we have not begun to mix Percent for Art Funds into the budget of the large festivals our office conducts. We are working with communities to apply more percent for arts funding towards public art based programs that communities request or are considered local (neighborhood level) priorities such as our summer youth employment mural training program, and smaller scale local exhibitions in parks

Our ordinance is attached, and the legal dept’s reply is below for reference.

Good luck!

Ryan

“You asked the Law department whether certain allocations of Percent for Art

funding complied with the enabling legislation. Specifically, you asked whether

using the funds to commission a local furniture artist to build a high quality,

multi-use desk or table from reclaimed wood for a new visitor center for Leakin

Park would be legal. Second, you asked whether using Percent for Art funding

to support temporary exhibitions in the park would be compliant with the

statute. Article 5, Subtitle 21 allows for both of these uses of the funding. In

fact, it is the intent of the program to “encompass the broadest possible range

and variety of expression, media and materials.” § 21-1 (c)(1). “Artwork”

includes works of art that are “made a functional part of” a public work. § 21-

1 (c)(2). A high-quality desk made of reclaimed wood, constructed and/or

designed by an artist would fit into this definition. “Artwork” also includes

works of art that are “sited in, on, or near a public park.” This would cover the

temporary exhibits you refer to. Eligible funds can also be used for placement,

installation, display and maintenance as stated in § 21-33 (1). Furthermore,

there is nothing in the statute or the BOPA guidelines that limits the art to be

permanently affixed or displayed. For these reasons, both allocations would be

legally permissible.”

From: public_art_network@americansforthearts.simplelists.com [mailto:public_art_network@americansforthearts.simplelists.com] On Behalf Of Lauren Kennedy
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2019 9:17 AM
To: public_art_network@americansforthearts.simplelists.com
Subject: flexible ordinances

Good morning, all,

Wondering if anybody has any examples of percent-for-art ordinances/programs that include opportunities for artists residencies, performance or festivals. Our county government is exploring creating a percent-for-art allocation and we are interested in how it can be written to provide some different opportunities beyond mural and sculpture. The City of Memphis' program does articulate artist residencies as a possible program, but it's not one that we have developed. Any examples of existing programs are greatly appreciated!

Hope you're all doing well-

Best,

Lauren Kennedy

Executive Director :: UrbanArt Commission

422 N. Cleveland St.

Memphis, TN 38104

lauren@uacmem.org :: 901.552.3934

www.uacmem.org

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