Better Government Association

Streamlining art

Advisory panels are stripped from public art selection process under Daley's controversial plan to 'simplify' the procedure

May 19, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com

Mayor Daley's plan to overhaul the way Chicago chooses the artwork that adorns public buildings was rammed through a City Council committee Friday amid complaints that "secrecy" won and the public lost. "It astounds me in the 21st century. They're saying it's inconvenient for us to let the public know what's going on," said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association.

"If that's a good enough reason to get out from under the Open Meetings Act, we might as well scrap the whole thing."

By eliminating the project advisory panels and the Public Art Committee and replacing them with powerless "public forums," Daley is thumbing his nose at the transparency he claims to embrace, said Robert Adkins, an attorney representing Scott Hodes.

'Bureaucratic procedures'

Hodes has filed three lawsuits over the past eight years accusing the Public Art Program of violating the Open Meetings Act, neglecting to post minutes of meetings and record votes and failing to explain to the public how art commissions are awarded.

"The department is pushing for legal authority to once again select artists in secret," Adkins said.

Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg countered that the selection process has "bogged down with bureaucratic procedures, paperwork and protocols."

It takes an average of five or six meetings to choose an artist.

In the last five years alone, Weisberg said her staff has been forced to schedule 188 meetings for 32 projects and place 3,384 phone calls to arrange those meetings.

For 29 years, City Hall has been required to set aside for public art 1.33 percent of the overall budget used to construct or remodel libraries, police stations, airports, senior citizen centers and other government buildings. The art collection has grown to more than 700 pieces.

The ordinance advanced Friday maintains that percentage. But instead of two levels of formal selection committees, Weisberg would be required to consult local residents, neighborhood organizations and businesses identified by the local alderman. At least two public forums would be held before artwork is chosen.