Arts funding boost aims to beautify S.A.
more than 20 years, San Antonio has funded public art to enhance infrastructure projects, including streets, libraries, parks and community buildings.
In 2011, City Council solidified that commitment, agreeing to spend at least 1 percent of all capital projects funded by bond issues on public art. Now, District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño is moving forward with a proposal to increase that minimum to 2 percent.
While that might not seem to be a major increase, if the minimum had been 2 percent for the current bond issue, that would have meant $16.6 million for public art instead of $8.3 million.
Treviño first presented his idea to increase the minimum in July in his Art WORKS Program, which also proposed other policies designed to incorporate more artistic elements in otherwise mundane infrastructure.
One proposal calls for artists to collaborate with architects and engineers on city infrastructure projects from the beginning, to integrate art in the project itself rather than having a stand-alone piece of art.
“(The arts) were one of the first hit during this pandemic,” Treviño said. “The idea is how can we create a more resilient framework that can survive even in a pandemic?”
The city suspended this year’s funding for all art entities from April through Sept. 30 due to projected revenue losses caused by the pandemic.
And funding for the arts and culture — fueled by hotel occupancy taxes — was cut by $2.6 million for the 2021 budget, city staff said in August.
That didn’t set well with the arts community nor with several council members, hence Treviño’s decision to revive his program.
“It’s about creating more opportunity for our local artists,” Treviño said of Art WORKS. “I think this is not only going to just help save our culture here in San Antonio, but it’s going to help provide a framework for a thriving art community for many years to come.”
The city has identified 19 projects where artists could work with architects and engineers on design, said the director of the city’s department of arts and culture, Debbie Racca-sittre.
“We want to develop a process for coming up with design enhancement that would be a standard,” Racca-sittre said.
The Governance Committee voted this week to move Treviño’s proposals about collaboration and increasing the bond isfor sue allotment to the Culture and Neighborhood Services Committee.
A third component of Treviño’s program suggested a policy to integrate art in private development, so that even though the art would be privately owned, the public would still be able to see and appreciate it.
This policy, which exists in several California cities, would not only create more job opportunities for local artists, but could enhance property values, the councilman said.
City staff suggested, however, that this portion of the program should go into effect after emergency orders related to the coronavirus pandemic are lifted. The Governance Committee voted to send this part of Treviño’s plan to the Culture and Neighborhood Services Committee as well as the Planning and Land Development Committee.