City may boost public art funds
Mayor says $2.75M endowment would contribute to ‘quality of life’
Creating a $2.75-million public art endowment will “absolutely” address Windsor’s cellar-dwelling status when it comes to arts funding, according to Mayor Drew Dilkens.
“I think public art is important, I want to support our local arts community and I think this gives council and future councils the opportunity to support public art in perpetuity,” the mayor said of the proposal which goes to council for approval Monday night.
Recently, an annual performance report comparing most of Canada’s major municipalities showed that Windsor was dead last when it came to arts funding — just $1.07 per capita. That was just 22 per cent of the median for the surveyed cities and well below nation-leading Montreal, which gives grants equivalent to $18.52 per person.
Dilkens said when he travels to various cities, he’s always impressed by their public art.
“I always think it adds to the quality of life in the city, it makes things more interesting.”
The endowment fund plan has been in the works for a couple of years. The money comes from $750,000 set aside this year and $2 million set aside in 2016 in the enhanced budget. It’s to be invested in a fund similar to a mutual fund available through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, that places 80 per cent of the money in fixed income instruments like bonds, and 20 per cent in stocks, said city treasurer Joe Mancina.
The city is projecting an annualized return of 4.73 per cent over 10 years. A portion of that return — 1.5 per cent, working out to $41,250 to $52,658 per year — will be used to fund arts projects and the rest will kept in the fund, “so it will grow over time,” according to Mancina, from $2.75 million to $3.6 million in 10 years.
In recent months, Windsor has been awash in public art projects — more than a dozen of them either installed or approved for installation.
And except for the two most costly and prominent works — historic city-sponsored monuments of War of 1812 allies General Isaac Brock and Chief Tecumseh, and whisky baron Hiram Walker — they’re being funded largely by community groups or the artists themselves.
These include recent installations of; Love for All, Hatred for None, a sculpture depicting hands of different colours holding a globe, erected by the Admadiyya Muslim community along the riverfront; and a 33-foot clock tower built by the Italian community in the middle of the Erie Street/Parent Avenue roundabout to honour the late Dr. Lazar Jovanovic, a family doctor cherished by new Canadians of all backgrounds who flocked to his Erie Street office; and the Moto Makeover Movement, which takes five donated cars, paints them with vibrant colours and designs, and turns them into planters in city parks.
But the mayor said this sudden influx is a probably an anomaly, and that the endowment fund should keep the public art projects coming.
A big project, like the Hiram Walker project which will end up costing taxpayers about $200,000, may require the council of the day to direct all the money for several years. A smaller project, like a mural project, may just take one year of funding.
Whether the endowment fund will continue to grow beyond $3.6 million will be up to future councils, Dilkens said. He said once the Hiram Walker monument is erected in Walkerville and the Brock/Tecumseh is erected in the Sandwich roundabout next spring, he’s hoping the public will become increasingly appreciative of public art.
“The whole idea in my mind is to use these projects as a catalyst,” he said. The public “will be inspired by what they see and it will better support future councils’ ability to put money in that fund to grow it to a level where they can support bigger projects each and every year.”
The whole idea in my mind is to use these projects as a catalyst.