Touch of art

By The Gazette Editorial Board

The Cedar Rapids City Council expressed a clear commitment this week to make sure that the city's post-flood public building boom will include art and other visual enhancements. We share that sentiment.

The council appears poised in the coming weeks to beef up an existing but seldom-used ordinance that urges city leaders to budget 1 percent of a project's total cost for art, landscaping and other aesthetic improvements.

Although the current ordinance is a suggestion, the council is likely to make it a requirement.

Clearly, not all public building projects cry out for artistic expression. So the council also, smartly, plans to pool dollars from those projects to be spent on more art-friendly settings. For example, a few council members expressed hope that public art could be used to dress up entrances to the city.

The City Council's official vote for public art would follow the lead of Linn County, which set aside up to 1 percent of its building costs for art.

We also hope that our many talented local artists get first consideration to provide art for public buildings. With the region's deep artistic history, it would be appropriate for new construction such as the library and events center to be graced with homegrown expression. Grant Wood's stained glass artistry at the Veterans Memorial Building shows how public art can become iconic.