Comments on: Feb. 3, 2014 Ann Arbor Council: Live Updates

By: abc

abc — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 18:30:26 +0000

Sorry Dave, of course you are right; Jeff Hayner ran for council. I have a bad habit of lumping people with political aspirations into a group of people who, sort of, always have political aspirations. And of course was not thinking about election cycles. Maybe it is an acknowledgement that our society has too many professional politicians. That is not intended to say anything about Mr. Hayner; It just says something about me.

And with respect to “a proper Public Arts program,” the issue is, of course, what constitutes proper? I appreciated Mr. Olson’s comments. It is, and has been, very easy to criticize the Public Arts endeavor, I have done so myself. But it is another thing to commit to a new and better approach. I, for one, would like to see the old system abandoned and have a completely new approach put in place.

Ms. Armentrout wrote, “[The Percent for Art] has become funds in search of an application.” I believe that’s true.

By: Donna Estabrook

Donna Estabrook — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 17:15:25 +0000

I haven’t been paying much attention to the discussions about public art. I personally am indifferent to large, abstract sculptures in public squares and I don’t think the Stadium Bridge needs any artistic enhancements but I wouldn’t abject to as long as it wasn’t distracting to drivers. I do object, however, to any art projects at the Cascades by the Argo canoe livery. It is a lovely piece of water sculpture as it is and it will get better as nature fills in the banks – as it has already started to do – with vegetation. Plus you can kayak down it. I hope the city leaves it alone.

By: OWS resident

OWS resident — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 17:02:11 +0000

Mr. Hayner,
You conveniently leave out the fishes which look from the published pictures that they are about ready for paint. If the Stadium bridges project were cancelled, I would expect a large bill from the artist for work done over the last year since the finalists were announced.
In the long term, getting the best artists and the best work will not be advanced by the city getting an even worse reputation of being flakey and difficult to work with. It costs the individual artists thousands of dollars of lost time to even apply for these public works jobs, and we are doing a serious disservice to them by not holding up our part of the bargain.

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 15:29:45 +0000

abc,

Jeff Hayner ran for Ward 1 council in November 2013, but up to now has not pulled petitions for a run this time around. If he’s planning to run again this year, I hope he’ll let us know! Without intending to put words in Jeff’s mouth with respect to how he conceives of a “proper Public Arts program,” the sort of thing that many people from within and without the arts community have talked about were echoed in the remarks of David Olson during public commentary at the meeting. Specifically, the funding source would need to allow for complete flexibility to define eligible projects on which money could be spent – temporary installations, festivals, public activities etc. etc.

By: abc

abc — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 15:13:08 +0000

Mr. Hayner,

You wrote, “Kill the projects, and put the $550,000 aside to earn interest until a proper Public Arts program can be created.”

Maybe you would like to describe what you have in mind that might constitute “a proper Public Arts program”. I would not just ask this of anyone but if you are the Jeff Hayner who is running for city council in the first ward it would only seem appropriate for you to layout what you are thinking. If elected you may be required to consider this issue and I for one would like to then know how you might approach “a proper Public Arts program”.

FWIW I quickly looked at your website and did not see anything that addressed this topic. If something is there please let me know and I will go find it.

And of course if you happen to be a different Jeff Hayner I apologize for putting you on the spot.

By: Jeff Hayner

Jeff Hayner — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 14:31:10 +0000

The art projects in the pipeline are not wanted nor needed, and should be terminated along with the temporary art administrator’s contract. To suggest that there is a “house half built” in the case of the Stadium Bridges or the Argo Cascades projects is pure fabrication. There is nothing but design documentation, for which the artists have been compensated. Kill the projects, and put the $550,000 aside to earn interest until a proper Public Arts program can be created.

By: David Cahill

David Cahill — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 23:12:03 +0000

I’m glad someone finally got fired. over this unmitigated public policy disaster called the Percent for Art program.

By: OWS resident

OWS resident — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 17:49:02 +0000

Getting rid of the public arts administrator at this point is like having your $800,000 house half built and firing the general contractor and expecting the plumber and electrician to finish it up with advice from the neighbors. Lack of effective big picture oversight has been part of the problem and this will certainly make it worse.

By: Alan Goldsmith

Alan Goldsmith — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 16:09:41 +0000

Those of us in the 4th Ward are certainly going to miss Ms. Teall’s strong and passionate representation of the interests of the rich, white bread and unrepresentative boring arts community. She can take pride in the knowledge that her cartoon-like outbursts like the ones covered in this article, are in part responsible for the backlash that is now making every nickle of city dollars being reviewed with a fine toothed comb. Making art loving Ann Arbor question their decades long support of public art was quite an acomplishment. Take a bow!