Also, I would hope that some of this funding could be put toward restoration of the better existing murals (and replacement of those of lower quality), or some of the cool old painted advertising signs that seem to be disappearing right and left from downtown. Many were art in their own right.

Seems ironic that with the looming lay offs of police and firefighters, and our deteriorating streets, that we have a committee trying so hard to find ways to dole out this huge pile of money that was taken from multiple other City “buckets.”

And it’s true about rents. That’s why places like the East Village (or Ypsilanti) become such potent places. Artists follow cheap rent and communities follow artists (and then hipsters and yuppies follow them and the rent is no longer cheap). Maybe it’s a dream to think A2 can ever play that role again.

The Art Center proposal for 415 W. Washington (which is unfunded, to my knowledge) calls for studio space to replace in concept the old cheap rundown Technology Center (where the new Y now resides). I wonder whether they would plan to make those studio spaces available at low rents or whether they would have to pay for themselves.

I’ve also wondered (but have no information) about how easily low-budget local artists can sell at any of the Art Fairs. Of course we have many very successful local artists who do.

I agree with you about local incubators. It would have been nice if the locals arts community had stood up to the million dollar German art project and pushed for more ‘localism’ at the time, but they didn’t. They were more than happy to march lock-step along with AAPAC, expecting who knows what, I can’t read minds, but assuming anyone spoke out in the local arts community against the water fountain fiasco, do you honestly expect they would be doled out City Per Cent Art Funds in the future? That was a turning point for me–the parade of support from the same groups that wanted City funding makes me not at all inclined to have my tax dollars go to them now. I’d rather continue to spend my own money and not have it passed out the the clique of usual suspects who are looking for their share of the public pie. It’s like Mavis Staples and The Ark fundraiser and $500 ring side seats white wine and table clothes. I’d much rather, with all due respect to The Ark, go to see a fifty different local musician at ten bucks a ticket than Ms. Staples once. Same this with a German water fountain. But I don’t trust the process The Mayor and Council has put into place to do any better in the future.

I think most people agree that grass-roots things like Festifools and Water Hill Music Fest are good things. I think throwing money at them, if it means having some kind of official oversight, would largely stifle them, but they deserve to be supported somehow. We have a bunch of similar institutions, like the Art Center and the Neutral Zone and the old Performance Network space and the Yellow Barn and the Blue House, that are kind of quasi-public and that act as incubators. I’d like to see more of that. Promoting an environment to make art in–spaces, organizations, communities, education–rather than buying big-ticket art showpieces, feels like a way forward to me.

The top-down approach of buying installation art…well, it’s nice that artists can get paid–though paying some guy in Germany doesn’t feel like the right use of local funds–but people are going to make art whether they get paid or not. I’d like to facilitate that aspect of “public art.”

Bingo! But don’t forget the AAPAC wanted to give funds to Festifools from the Per Cent For Art Fund, but couldn’t. That’s the major problem with this entire mess. If you questions money being wasted, you’re called a Tea Party, anti-art low life. Give me back my tax dollars and I’ll give directly to local artists like I have for years. Art by committee never works–it only profits artists who are connected to the committee.

Mayor Hieftje initiated this program and the Council has been too intimidated to question it, instead mouthing platitudes about Ann Arbor’s soul, etc. But I don’t think that they are really serving the purpose that they espouse. Surely now with all the financial challenges we face, it is time to rethink this program. How do we truly encourage a public understanding of art – and support local artists? Can institutionalized art really serve this purpose?