Encouraged by Program : Artworks Proliferate at Public Buildings

Recently, a large outdoor sculpture installed in the plaza of the Jacob Javits Federal Building in downtown New York made headlines when some people protested its presence.

They raised such an outcry that a special hearing was convened to consider removing the work, although it had originally been installed only after a lengthy review process.

The debate should not come as a surprise since art has often outraged public sensibilities. One authority says this debate and others like it cannot, however, disguise the fact that the use of art in public buildings is “at an unprecedented all-time high” in the United States.

Elena Canavier, executive director of the Public Art Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, told an audience at the Parsons School of Design in New York recently that “percent-for-art” programs are partly responsible for the inclusion of art in buildings all over the country. Such programs mandate that a certain percentage of a building’s cost--usually from 1/2% to 1 1/2%--be used to purchase art for the building.

Private Sector

A number of private developers, corporations, banks, artists and local groups are also involved in placing art outside where it can be seen by the public.

“We are getting calls from all over the country from towns seeking information on how to set up a public art program,” she said.

The reason for the increase is, first of all, that “in every city around the country there is public support for art in public buildings. People can see what their tax money has bought.” Private developers feel art is generally conducive to good public relations. Furthermore, some cities offer tax or zoning incentives for the inclusion of art within or outside commercial buildings.

Some of the best-known examples of private support for public art are the satellite museums established in corporate buildings. In New York City, for example, Phillip Morris Corp. offers free space to the Whitney Museum of American Art, and International Paper has a similar arrangement with the American Craft Council.

Space for Museums

In Boston, Rouse Co., which developed the Faneuil Hall marketplace, has alloted space to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Canavier said.

Other cities where public art is widely found include Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and Baltimore. But in many cities and towns across the country, smaller examples abound. For example, in Lewisboro, N.Y., a large sculpture now stands outside the local library. The sculpture was carved from an old tree--toppled by lightning--by local artist Axel Horn and town residents.

According to Canavier, percent-for-art programs started at the local level and then moved to larger-scale use in state and federal government. The first city to have a program was Philadelphia, which inaugurated a percent-for-art program in 1959. About 50 cities, 26 to 28 states and a number of federal departments such as the General Services Administration and the Veterans Administration have public art programs.

One type of program not widely known in this country is an art bank. Canada set up an art bank 13 years ago to provide support for Canadian artists, according to William Kirby, head of the program. He noted that each year the bank buys between 300 and 400 works. A changing board of art authorities recommends which work to buy from among slides submitted by artists who wish to be considered.

Artwork Rentals

The works are rented out to government departments and nonprofit organizations. Rental fees range from about $50 a year to $1,000, and total receipts from fees are about $750,000 a year. This money is used to fund new purchases.

A program such as this could work well in the United States, says Canavier. It is one of many possible ways of increasing access to art and of supporting the work of American artists.

Canavier, an artist who shows her porcelain sculptures and drawings under the name Elena Karina, was crafts coordinator of the National Endowment of the Arts.