(City of Red Deer)

By Sheldon Spackman

Under Review

Council to consider possible revisions to City’s public art policy

Jul 14, 2020 | 11:00 AM

Red Deer city council had its first look at proposed policy and governance changes to the City’s public art program on Monday.

The public art review which began in 2019 includes changes recommended based on research conducted on other municipalities, as well as administration’s experience with the program which was first established in 1996 and last reviewed in 2010.

City officials say the public art policy is intended to ensure the incorporation of public art into the planning, design, and building of City capital projects. Currently, 1 per cent of a capital project’s budget is used for a public art piece, with that amount recommended to remain the same moving forward.

Recreation, Parks and Culture Manager Shelley Gagnon says there are three focus areas in the review, including the percentage allocation for public art, governance, and capital project thresholds and project eligibility.

“How they (council) choose the project that must have a public art component is based on the value of the project itself,” explains Gagnon. “Back in 2010, council set the threshold of the value of the project at $250,000. That is one of the items that they’re examining, as to whether the threshold needs to be higher.”

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Currently, city administration is recommending the threshold for capital projects requiring a public art component, increase to $500,000.

In terms of the art projects themselves, Gagnon says council only approves them in principle through the passing of a capital budget, while a Public Art Commission adjudicates and reviews all acquisitions and donations of public art for the City of Red Deer.

“The Commission works to identity the theme and the project charter for that piece,” says Gagnon. “Then the Commission itself shortlists and selects the final piece. After council approves the capital budget, they’re not involved in the process anymore, they have delegated that authority to a commission that has an arms-length adjudication process and there is no council member on the Commission.”

Gagnon says that council, however, will soon have the chance to sever pieces of a revised public art policy they might wish to debate.

“Yesterday (Monday), they didn’t make any decisions about the policy itself,” she points out. “It does appear that there will be pieces of the policy that they want to debate, and depending on the debate and where the vote lands, it will depend on whether or not it (the policy) will change.”

With over 100 public art pieces throughout the City, Gagnon says the public art policy is an important one for the community.

“Public art has social value, it has cultural value, it creates economic sustainability in our community, it generates tourism, employment in the cultural section and certainly adds value to our public spaces,” adds Gagnon. “When you think of public art in Red Deer, you probably think of our ghosts throughout the downtown and when you think of other major municipalities around the country, you probably will go right away to pieces of public art that you go and you visit. I believe that council also values public art, and so it’s just a matter of tweaking various pieces of the policy.”