Costly Art

The Joliet City Council recently decided to wait on voting on purchasing additional public artwork until after the election. It seems that they do not want to vote on a pork project so close to an election. Heavens forbid their vote be fresh in the minds of voters!

I am not against public art. I am just against the $2.5 million that Joliet has paid to Friends of Community Public Art for public art and sculptures over the years. This group seems less like friends of public art and more like profiteers of public art. They do not donate public art. They do not raise funds to purchase public art. They do not try to attract artists to create free public art. They create pieces of art and then sell it to the City of Joliet. They simply see the City of Joliet as their wealthy patron and keep milking to City for their livelihoods.

There are better ways of beautifying Joliet with artworks. The city could commission local high school and JJC students to create artworks and simply pay for materials. They could hold a large contest for public sculptures and as part of the contest retain the rights to display the entries for a number of years. The city of Lawrence, Kansas took this second approach and their downtown is filled with beautiful sculptures. The cost of the prizes for the contest was far less than what Joliet spends each year on public art. The prizes were generous enough to attract nationwide entries. And of course the third option is for the City to encourage donations of and towards public art and to provide space for it, but not to fund it directly.