City Weighs Proposal for Funding Public Art : Ventura: Council will vote on an ordinance that may set aside up to $250,000 annually for works in buildings and in parks.

The city of Ventura is considering a plan to enhance its city-owned buildings and parks with murals, sculptures, fountains and paintings through a new ordinance that could provide up to $250,000 for public art each year.

If approved Monday, Ventura would become the only city in the county and one of only 100 in the nation that commits a percentage of public funds each year for the arts, said Barbara M. Harison, Ventura Parks and Recreation director and head of the public arts program.

The ordinance would set aside 2% of the city’s annual capital improvement budget for art in public places, generating an anticipated $100,000 to $250,000 per year.

The fund could be used to pay artists to create conventional art such as murals and sculpture for the inside and outside of city-owned areas. But it could also be used for less traditional art, such as creative tile work, a decorative fence or a neon sculpture, Harison said.

“It would be up to the artist’s imagination,” she said. “We might have some parameters on the specific project, or we might just say, ‘We just want public art.’ ”

The City Council will hold a public hearing on the ordinance, followed by a vote during its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Those opposed to the program say it is an inappropriate use of public money.

Margueriette Kurillo, who opposed one public art project earlier this year in Ventura, said the city already allocates money for the arts through the Ventura Arts Council. The city underwrites about $81,000 of the council’s $185,000 annual budget.

In January, Kurillo and others protested the Arts Council’s sponsorship of a controversial anti-war exhibit that included a collage depicting a Christ-figure with a machine gun.

“Art is too controversial,” Kurillo said. “I do not want my tax dollars used for offensive art.”

Ray Russum, a regular critic of the council, said the new expenditure for public art would only result in raised taxes.

“The city says it’s broke and doesn’t have enough money to fix roads, but they have enough money to pay off their wine and cheese society friends,” Russum said. “The government has no business buying art.”

Others disagree.

“Public art is one of the few positive ways to spend our tax dollars,” said Larry Gieseking, an Oxnard businessman and neon artist who displays his work at Franky’s Place restaurant in downtown Ventura.

Franky’s Place owner Chris Pustina said public funds should be spent on the arts even during troubled economic times.

“It’s important that the whole community be exposed to art,” Pustina said.

Harison said the city of Oxnard also has an art program, but it requires developers to spend private funds for art on their premises, Harison said.

The Ventura ordinance would require the City Council to appoint an art advisory committee to be made up of artists, community members and residents with technical expertise in architecture. It would oversee the distribution of the money and the kinds of projects to be created.

The City Council would have final review over placement of the projects, but it would not make decisions on what sort of art is to be created.

“It’s not appropriate for the council to decide on what is art,” Ventura Mayor Richard Francis said. “The council should foster the arts, but not control them.”

The ordinance, which was 18 months in the making, specifically rules out spending the arts funds on any street, sewer or architectural work. It states that no more than 25% of the funds may be used for maintenance of the artwork, public education and dedications.

Francis said, however, that he is disappointed that the ordinance excludes performing arts.

“I think we will be unnecessarily tying the hands of the committee,” Francis said. “If it’s not a fixed piece of art, it can’t get approval.”

But Francis said he will support the proposal as written because the ordinance is too important to jeopardize. “Art is a way to reveal the soul of the community,” he said.

Times correspondent Gerry Brailo Spencer contributed to this story.