Library Art – Part II
Board Votes Down Resolution to Place a Moratorium on Art Spending
Yesterday, I offered a resolution to place a moratorium on the requirement that Hennepin County automatically spend 1% of every large library building project on public art. Currently, we are scheduled to spend almost $1 million in our capital budget over the next four years on library art.
My resolution failed on a 2-5 vote (with Randy Johnson joining me in voting “yes”).
My rationale was simple: At a time when we are making actual budget cuts almost across the board in the county, it makes absolutely no sense to be automatically dedicating hundreds of thousands of dollars to every library building project for art. Most of my colleagues, however, disagreed.
Last night, Jeff Passolt on Fox9 hosted an arts advocate and me to debate the issue:
Tags: budget, hennepin county