Title
Approval of Revised Art in Pubic Places Board Policies and Guidelines
Recommended Action
I move Council approve the revised Policies and Guidelines for the Art in Public Places Board as presented.
Board, Commission or Committee Recommendation
The Art in Public Places Board approved these revisions and recommends Council approval.
Body
As required by their enabling legislation (County Code 8-33-6) the Art in Public Places Board (APPB) is tasked with recommending policies that are necessary to effect the purpose of the APPB’s tasks and responsibilities, subject to the approval of Council.
The last major re-write of these policies and guidelines was approved by Council on November 19, 1991; however, the portion of the policy related to donations was completely re-written and approved by Council on February 21, 2014.
The Board has discussed and noted the need for reviewing and re-writing the policies many times over the 25 years since 1991, but didn’t undertake the task until the Council allowed the appointment of two provisional APPB members during 2013-2015. One provisional member, John Hopkins, was instrumental in getting this overhaul completed and the board greatly appreciates his efforts and expertise in this area.
One goal of the re-write was to make the APPB Policies and Guidelines more cohesive by combining various APPB policy documents into one document. The document now being presented to Council includes all general APPB policies and guidelines plus the donation policy and the APPB guidelines for plaques and signs have now been incorporated as appendices.
Other revisions/additions to the policies and guidelines are described below:
One objective of the overhaul was to make the policies less prescriptive and more descriptive regarding the current methods used by the art board as they select and recommend artwork purchases. For example, the former list of difficult-to-apply criteria (Quality, Style and Nature, Elements of Design, Permanence, Public Liability, Acquisition and Diversity) has been replaced by the more useful criteria listed below:
a) Quality of the workmanship
b) Reputation and/or recognition of the artist or artists.
c) Appropriateness of the art for the proposed location.
d) Maintenance requirements for the art.
e) Environmental factors (weather, noise, light, etc.).
f) Security factors (theft, vandalism, etc.).
g) Public safety.
Also, the definition section has been expanded and the confusing term “deaccessioning” has been replaced throughout the document with either “disposal” or “disposition.” The process for removing artwork form the public collection has been revised to improve clarity and provide a more appropriate procedure for the County to follow.
The 1991 version of the APPB policies and guidelines contained a section related to the development of a “Los Alamos Historic Art Collection” which has been removed. To date, the County has not developed this “Historic Art Collection” only a public art collection. This does not mean that it can’t be done in the future, but the board believes that new guidelines for an historic art collection can be developed if the County decides at a later date to do this.
The criteria for site selection has been revised to eliminate private offices or inaccessible public areas.
The section describing the "Placement, Movement, or Relocation of Art" has been revised to reflect current practices.
At the recommendation of the Attorney’s Office, the Donation Policy section (Appendix A) has been expanded to include an “acceptance” form that addresses the legal issues regarding copyrights, licenses, the Visual Artists Rights Act, and derivative works.
Other small changes were made in the document to improve format and clarity of responsibilities.
The Board has reviewed, discussed, and unanimously approved all the revisions included in this new document and is asking Council this evening to approve these policies and guidelines.
Attachments
A - APPB Policies and Guidelines - June 23, 2016