Hi Amanda and PAN colleagues,

I second what Liza Zenni reported, and so counsel my art consulting clients: why allow public dollars (and the assets they have purchased) to beautify private property? 

Spending public dollars on private property improvements has both legal and policy ramifications, and they should be examined.

Start with your city attorney and ask if this is a reasonable use of Georgetown's public assets. If the attorney's offices affirms it in writing, review your cultural policies to see how all private businesses can be made aware of and apply for this benefit. 

Who should pay for staff research and development of this specific contract? Is there a public benefit that outweighs the staff cost of developing and monitoring the program, and the risk to the work of publicly owned art?

If you move forward, liability insurance covering the public, and fine art insurance for the art, should be required and paid for by the property owner.  This might require a 2019 assessment and replacement value of the artwork (not the commission cost)  Typically, public art collections are self-insured, so the decision to put one artwork in a private space will need specific policy coverage.

There are special cases for saying yes. I would argue the public benefit of the city-wide, issue-based temporary (3 month) public art program I led, with 15 commissioned works sited at diverse venues including a private yacht club, commercial fishing marina and tribal center, is one such special case.

Good luck!

Helen Lessick
HelenLessick.net




On Wed, 17 Apr 2019 at 08:41, Julia Muney Moore <jmoore@indyarts.org> wrote:
Our experience has been the opposite:  a private entity wants to place a sculpture on public land, generally a park or a greenway. We work with the city to make sure the owner of the sculpture insures and maintains it, and the city executes a MOU with the private property owner. (to be clear--the Arts Council is a private nonprofit organization but we do a lot to interface with the city on a variety of things)

Julia Muney Moore
Director of Public Art
Arts Council of Indianapolis

924 N. Pennsylvania St.
Indianapolis, IN  46204
(317) 631-3301 x 240
(317) 332-8382 mobile



On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 10:03 AM Amanda Still (via public_art_network list) <public_art_network@americansforthearts.simplelists.com> wrote:

Dear Public Art Network,

 

I am looking for examples of other municipalities that have placed public art sculptures on private property and how the legal agreement was structured.  For example, was an easement granted to the City by the property owner?

 

Thank you for your input!

 

Amanda Still

Arts and Culture Coordinator

City of Georgetown

512-930-8471

arts.georgetown.org

 

 

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