NCLM.ORG 33 BEN BROWN NCLM Communications & Multimedia Strategist “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” This quote, from artist Georgia O’Keefe, neighbors so many like it on the seemingly priceless value of art and its powers of communication, representation, unification, introspection, and everyday pleasantry, so much that nothing, not even government, can resist the conversation. In summer 2017, Municipal Equation, the League’s podcast about cities and towns adapting to change, ran an episode exploring “public art”—that is, generally, art placed in a public space following some kind of public process—and why municipal governments across North Carolina have been inspired to add public art to the local scene. Just prior, that spring, the podcast examined a downtown mural trail the City of Sanford commissioned to celebrate local, historical heroes and events. The bottom line, municipal officials and public art experts told the podcast, is that communities can feel a sense of refreshment, pride, fellowship and, to reference O’Keefe, communicative new color with the placement of art in public spaces and on big downtown walls, which may require some kind of local government involvement or approval. Those episodes are online at https://municipalequation.libsyn.com. But the question of exactly how a local government can facilitate public art received new attention recently, when the NC Local Government Budget Association’s Winter Conference in Winston-Salem featured a live recording of Municipal Equation on the very subject. This writer moderated a panel of two municipal government professionals who help to responsibly add public art to their cities. “I generally give the definition of art in the public realm,” said Kelly Bennett, certified planner and Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Public Art Commission staff liaison, when asked to define public art. “You could consider art that’s privately funded in a public space public art, but what we generally go with is art that is publicly funded in a public space.” When the City of Sanford, for instance, pursued its public mural project, private funds ended up covering tabs, inclusive of the hired muralist’s rate. But many public art projects, like those Bennett deals with, might involve public funds, which motivates oversight, method, and inclusion of community voice. “For us, there is still that community component, because it is publicly funded,” said Chris Lange, art and transit program administrator at Charlotte-Area Transit System (CATS). Lange joined Bennett on the panel. continues on page 35
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