Controversy caused by a recent Traverse City Coast Guard Committee proposal to install a 20-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture at the corner of Front Street and Grandview Parkway raised questions about the city's approval process for public art. Now, a plan from the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) proposes to overhaul the city's art ordinance and establish funding and a separate commission to handle such requests.

Adopted in 2003, the city's current ordinance calls for organizations and individuals wishing to donate or install public art to go first through the Parks and Recreation Commission, then the City Commission, for approval. But that process – which favors a reactive instead of proactive approach to art submissions, lacks a funding mechanism and operates primarily below the public's radar – isn't working, according to DDA staff.

“It's not set up in a way that can bring awareness of public art and engage the community in being supportive of public art,” says DDA Marketing Director Colleen Paveglio, who experienced her own controversy with the process during a failed DDA attempt in 2008 to install a “Time Myth” sculpture in the Open Space. “Through this painful process...we're realizing this community owes it to itself to have a better ordinance and more of our local talent and creativity on display.”

Last October, the DDA hired TC-based consultant Jean Aukerman to help research a potential new ordinance. Aukerman interviewed numerous area artists, gallery owners and creative professionals on a desired policy for the city, as well as reviewed best practices from among 300+ cities across the country with formal public art policies.

Integrating both local feedback and national research, Aukerman made several key recommendations to the DDA board at a recent meeting this spring, including:

* Establishing a Funding Mechanism for Art – Communities with dedicated funds for public art had the most successful long-term programs, according to Aukerman. “You need a continuous revenue stream, otherwise it's feast or famine because you don't have a consistent funding source,” she tells The Ticker. The solution: A Percent for Art ordinance, which allocates somewhere between half and two percent of funds from city capital improvement projects to a dedicated arts fund. Donations, grants, sponsorships and public-private partnerships could also support the fund.

* Creating a Public Arts Commission – “One critical point that came through (in the research process) is that any committee tasked with managing public art needs to have authority and responsibility,” says Aukerman. “Their decisions need to be final.” To that end, the DDA is considering proposing a separate public arts commission – comprised of art experts and representatives of various local government bodies – to oversee the city's art program. One of the commission's first responsibilities would be creating a TC “public art master plan” – one “that's concurrent with our existing parks and city plans,” according to Paveglio.

* Develop Public Input Processes – “Everybody (I interviewed) felt the public should absolutely be engaged in the process,” says Aukerman. She notes that while residents might not agree on a proposed design for a monument or sculpture, debate “is OK – art is meant to spark conversation.” What shouldn't cause controversy, she says, is the process by which proposals are reviewed and approved. “The ordinance needs to be crystal clear. There shouldn't be any confusion over how it works.”

Utilizing Aukerman's research, the DDA is drafting a proposed ordinance that will go first to the city attorney for review, then the DDA board and City Commission for approval. Depending on the review process, Paveglio says the ordinance could come up for implementation in the next six to twelve months.

“Success to me would be actually seeing more public art installed around the community,” says Paveglio, pointing to the success of programs like ArtPrize in Grand Rapids in driving a city's economic and tourism activity. “We have so many artists, in this city and in the state, that could contribute to making this a wonderful place for art.”