Percent for Art

For a number of years, some local governments around the country have mandated "percent for art" laws that require developers to set aside 1% of their project cost for public art to be incorporated into their building, placed outside of it or deposited into a fund for art to be placed elsewhere in their community.

Now, there's been a call for one percent of the Federal economic stimulus package to be spent for art: art jobs, art in public works projects, arts education, arts in the workplace, and more. An online petition is getting media attention to communicate this to the Senate as they deliberate on their task of revising the package passed by the House last week.

If you feel strongly about this, I hope you'll take this opportunity to communicate to Senators Boxer and Feinstein and sign the petition.

I'll be speaking more about public art programs here in the future as well as the famed Federal Arts Project of the 1930s that left a legacy of great art for our nation.