Half Percent for Art for a While?

A proposed amendment to the city’s public art ordinance – on the Ann Arbor city council’s agenda for Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 – was made the subject of a proposed revision on Friday. Attached to the city’s online Legistar agenda is an alternative amendment that would reduce the amount of city funding from 1% to 0.5% – from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2015.

The city of Ann Arbor’s current public art ordinance requires that 1% of all capital project budgets (up to a limit of $250,000 per project) be set aside for public art. [.pdf of originally proposed ordinance amendment] [.pdf of possible revision to the ordinance amendment]

The revised amendment would not, as the original amendment does, exclude the street repair millage fund from use for public art. However, in the revised amendment, the definition of capital improvement project would still exclude sidewalk repair.

The original amendment was first considered at the council’s Sept. 19, 2011 meeting and postponed until Nov. 21. The city’s public art program was the subject of a Nov. 14 council working session. [Additional Chronicle coverage: "Council Preview: Public Art Ordinance"]