Agenda - 10-25-2004-4 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Proposed Orange County Percent for Art Program • A Percent for Art Program makes art accessible and visible throughout our county. It brings art into everyday life, Public sites provide an important venue for Orange County residents and visitors to appreciate artwork outside the traditional museum or gallery setting. • Public Art serves as an expression of the community, as well as a landmark. It helps to define the county's identity and sense of place. • Public Art helps to promote social interaction and discourse. • Public Art can memorialize the past as well as express shared values for the future, All great civilizations are recognized by the presence of public art, • Percent for Art projects demonstrate how art that is integrated into its site enhances civic architecture and a wide range of public spaces. • The Orange County town of Chapel Hill already has a Percent for Art Program in place by ordinance. (Charlotte and Asheville also have established Percent for Art Programs. Other NC locations with public art plans and/or public art committees in place are Cary, Hickory, Wilson, Kinston, and Hendersonville. New light rail construction efforts in Charlotte and Raleigh will include public art as part of those projects,) Administered by the Orange County Arts Commission, the Percent for Art Program offers Orange County the opportunity to acquire or commission works of art specifically for county-funded construction projects, The purpose of the program is to bring artists into the design process and enrich the county's civic and community buildings and public spaces. The Percent for Art Program would require that one percent (1 %) of the budget far eligible county- fimded construction projects are spent on artwork for county facilities, The Percent for Art Program would apply to county-funded capital constn~ction projects that provide public services and accessibility, New construction and existing facilities undergoing substantial reconstruction would be considered, These include, but are not limited to, firehouses, schools, shelters, police precincts, courthouses, hospitals, clinics, passenger terminals, prisons, detention centers, parks and sanitation facilities. The money for Percent for Art projects is allocated from the actual construction budget for each public space or facility. Percent for Art projects are site-specific and engage a variety of media -painting, mosaic, glass, textiles, sculpture, and works that are integrated into infrastructure, or architecture, The artwork must be allocated in an area of the facility that is accessible to the public, Artwork could be broadly defined as "all forms of visual arts conceived in any medium, material or combination thereof," It may be commissioned or purchased, or an existing county-owned artwork may be restored and re-sited. The Program would commission or purchase artwork from artists of all races and backgrounds that reflect the diversity of Orange County.