Art to be built into city projects

Sito Negron

Thursday, Dec. 18, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.

A percentage of the cost of construction projects will now be used to pay for public art in Las Vegas.

The City Council approved the new policy with a 5-2 vote Wednesday.

The majority of the council agreed with proponents who said such a program -- in place in more than 200 cities nationwide -- fits Las Vegas' growing status as a major metropolitan city.

"We are in the 21st century now and we have to have that component to be the city that I believe we can be," said Mayor Oscar Goodman, who proposed the idea.

Later, he said, "When you live in a great city like Las Vegas, you're entitled to the very best ... It's that simple."

Vicky Richardson, owner of Left of Center art gallery and a member of the city's Art Commission, said: "Art and our public places are our rallying points."

The opposition, Ward 4 Councilman Larry Brown and Ward 6 Councilman Michael Mack, worried that dedicating a revenue stream to a concept, as opposed to a specific list of projects, opened the door for other such requests -- for park maintenance, for example.

Brown said he would support more art coming through the normal budgetary process, as a line item request, and called the proposal the "wrong vehicle."

At the conclusion of the hearing, he said, "I haven't heard a legitimate answer why, other than other cities do it."

Ward 3 Councilman Lawrence Weekly, in making the motion to approve the project, said: "The answer why, in my opinion, is because it's the right thing to do."

The program is estimated to raise between $100,000 and $150,000 in its first year, city officials said. If money is not spent in one fiscal year, it can carry over to the next, as long as the fund does not exceed $1 million.

The idea has been around for more than 50 years, established by Philadelphia in the 1950s. Other cities that have such programs number in the hundreds, and in the Southwest include Phoenix, Albuquerque and El Paso, Texas.

Another benefit of the proposal is that it places aesthetics squarely in the middle of the process, instead of trying to fit art into a project once it's completed. City staff showed slides of examples -- a fire station with colored bricks fit into the facade to create the shape of an engine, or landscaping built into highways.

A local example of such a process is the newly renovated Huntridge Circle Park, which recently reopened after a makeover that included bringing in an artist to develop benches and tables that look like martini glasses.

The valley is not barren of public art. McCarran International Airport boasts sculptures leading up to passenger drop-off and pickup areas, for example, and many city parks feature sculpture or murals.