Advancing art: visual pieces a part of rebuilding plans

CEDAR RAPIDS - As the city rebuilds from the Flood of 2008, leaders are making sure visual arts are included in major projects like the new library and transit facility.

“The city has seen the flood as an opportunity to take public art to the next level,” said Jim Kern, chairman of the Visual Arts Commission and executive director of Brucemore.

In November the City Council approved a resolution to revise the Visual Art Enhancement Program, increasing the amount of a public project's cost for art and visual enhancements from 1 percent to 2 percent.

When the commission was formed in 1994, a resolution approved 1 percent spending, but that was discretionary, Kern said.

The amended resolution changed “may” to “shall reserve” 2 percent for eligible projects of $250,000 or more.

“It will have a profound impact of the aesthetics of building projects going forward,” Kern said.

To encourage a variety of ideas and community input, the visual arts commission is holding its first “Ignite Cedar Rapids” event Thursday at Gatherings restaurant in the Bottleworks building, 905 Third St. SE.

“Ignite is a national event to spur public conversation of the importance of visual arts,” Kern said.

Members of the public as well as city and business leaders are invited to watch eight five-minute presentations.

“The ideas are fun,” Kern said. “Some are not new, but some are in left field.”

Ideas include live art, dressing up the facades of parking structures and telling history through a series of murals.

The commission will not endorse any of the ideas but business leaders, City Council members, foundations, philanthropists or “anybody who appreciates visual arts” can take an idea and develop it.

“We hope it sparks ongoing conversation,” Kern said.

Iowa City

In Iowa City, council support for public art is harder to come by as the recession continues to take it toll on the budget.

As recently as fiscal 2002, Iowa City's public art program received $100,000 per year in city funds. That was reduced to $50,000 annually for several years, and it's now down to $14,750.

“Right now in terms of the budget, it's tough to pass,” said Marcia Bollinger, Iowa City neighborhood services coordinator who also administers the Iowa City Public Art Program.

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the UI each have their own art programs, adding to the visual arts in the Iowa City area.

The Herky on Parade project in 2004 and the upcoming Book Marks project are private projects not funded by the city.

Although the Iowa City Public Art Program's funding has been reduced, the city is able to maintain popular smaller projects such as Poetry in Public which displays poems by writers of all ages in city buses, one of the downtown kiosks and other public facilities.

The Neighborhood Art Program is also an inexpensive popular city-funded program encouraging residents' participation.

“It allows them to identify their neighborhood,” Bollinger said.

Neighborhood projects include street and historical markers. The most current project in the Washington Hills Neighborhood features a bench and mosaic markers in Pheasant Hill Park made by Iowa City art teacher Jill Harper.

“It's a fabulous project,” Bollinger said. “It should be done this spring.”