theater, dance, music, comedy).
“The bifurcation of visual arts and performing arts feels
unnatural,” Cultural Services Director Anderson tells me.
“To me, they really seem woven together.”
As art becomes more multi-disciplinary, it’s true that
the distinction between visual arts (think 2D art) and
performing arts tends to blur more frequently.
However, lumping the visual arts in with performing
arts, which are the dominant focus of the Hult Center, is
also an easy way for the visual arts to be lost in the fray.
Anderson explains that the city does support the visual
arts in many ways, the efforts just aren’t as visible as the
performing arts.
“We do not support an art center currently,” Anderson
says. “But we do support tons of arts programming, but
a lot of it is distributed through the community in ways
people don’t see.”
Anderson adds that the city also supports the visual arts
by maintaining different venues, funneling grants through
Lane Arts Council, hosting community events and the
city’s public art program, “which is kind of quiet in the
background.”
Isaac Marquez has been the city’s public art manager
since 2010. The position, however, is halftime (.5 FTE),
which he combines with another half-time position helping
organize and host Cultural Services events like the annual
(sub)Urban Projections mutlimedia festival.
“The art that the city owns, we’ve pieced together a
little funding and we do a better job of caring for it and
maintaining it now,” Marquez says, pointing out that
before his half-time position was created in 2010, there
was no public art manager.
Eugene has more than 200 commissioned and donated
works in its collection. Some of these art works are
outdoors — Pete Helzer’s Ken Kesey statue or the new
skate park murals, for example — and some are displayed
in public buildings around town, while others are in storage
and others still are unaccounted for.
“The database is not up to date,” Marquez says. “It’s
kind of embarrassing that we don’t have this really high-
end inventory system, but we’re not like a museum.” He
says in June he is getting help to revamp the system.
NUMBERS SPEAK
LOUDER THAN WORDS
In January 2010, the city released the Eugene Public Art
Plan. The plan came to fruition through a $25,000 National
Endowment of the Arts grant and the participation of the
Eugene Public Art Committee and a 14-person steering
committee, as well as stakeholder interviews with more
than 400 Eugeneans, from City Manager Jon Ruiz to EW’s
own music writer William Kennedy.
The plan, prepared by Portland consulting firm Barney
& Worth, Inc., in association with Oregon’s Regional
Arts & Cultural Council, draws many conclusions about
Eugene’s relationship to the visual arts.
The good news: “Eugene has emerged as an arts
destination, with an abundance of arts and cultural offerings
enjoyed by visitors and residents alike.”
It should be noted that the Jacobs Gallery, which is
mentioned in the plan, and other art galleries have closed
since the information was gathered.
There are several areas where the plan identifies that
Eugene has fallen behind best practices:
For midsize cities (populations of 100,000 to 250,000),
the average annual budget for public art programs is
$330,000. “The city of Eugene’s most recent completed
budget year shows the Public Art Fund with total resources
of $213,000,” the plan states. The city has not yet responded
to a request for the program’s current budget.
It also states, “Unlike its peers, Eugene has not
developed a robust array of printed brochures, maps, web
information and other interpretive materials” of its public
art. In other words, the city of Eugene has not made its
public collection accessible to the public.
And despite Eugene being one of the earliest adopters
of the percent-for-art funding model in 1981 — a model
now used by more than 75 percent of public art programs
13
February 4, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
'THE CITY HAS BEEN
LOOKING FOR PLACES TO
CUT THE BUDGET, AND
IT GIVES A LIE TO THE
DECLARATION THAT THE
CITY OF EUGENE IS THE
CITY OF THE ARTS AND
OUTDOORS BECAUSE
THEY HAVE NEVER PUT
THEIR MONEY WHERE
THEIR MOUTH IS.'
- JERRY ROSS
nationwide — the city has since faltered.
Eugene’s One Percent For Art ordinance currently
requires that one percent of funds for all city construction
and remodeling projects go to the public art fund, which
funds art commissions, infrastructure and maintenance.
Peer cities have moved from a one percent to two
percent model, have widened the scope of eligible funding
to include transportation projects and have calculated
the percentage for art on the city’s entire capital budget,
including purchases of land, buildings and machinery.
“The rationale for Eugene’s unusually narrow percent-
for-art definition is no longer clear,” the plan states.
“Eugene’s funding level of one percent for capital projects
also now falls behind national best practices.”
The plan also makes recommendations for city staffing.
“The program still does not have a full-time, dedicated
staff, an ingredient that is essential for ongoing success.”
Under national best practices, the plan states that peer
cities typically have “two (or more) full-time staff.”
A PUBLIC HUB
FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
On Nov. 4, 2015, Mayor Piercy wrote an email to
Grube, Anderson and the City Council.
“It is my great hope and determination that we will use
this moment of change with the Jacobs to do something
really important and innovative in the visual arts for/with
our city.”
She continues: “Two things come to my mind. One
is that we have a collection of some fine local art pieces
and no place to show them in a focused and meaningful
way. I have long been interested in us showing the local art
and artists that we have in our city collection. Artists have
told me they would contribute additional pieces if they
knew they would be part of a city collection and would be
shown.”
Piercy goes on to say that the Jacobs Gallery folks are
interested in a venue that “teaches and nourishes artists,”
while the UO’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art “has
long talked about a downtown presence. Is there some
connection here?”
She concludes by saying: “Let’s not be pedestrian and
let us take advantage of this opportunity.”
Perhaps this is the moment for which the visual arts
community has been advocating for decades, the moment
to build a public art center and museum. Maybe Eugene can
have an art center, which many in the arts community say
could be run in a similar fashion to the city-run rec centers
in town, with art classes, studio space and a permanent
gallery space where the city’s public art collection could
be on view and easily accessible to its citizens.
And while the visual arts community stated that the art
hubs Eugene does have — like Maude Kerns Art Center,
the volunteer-run New Zone Gallery and the Schnitzer —
are essential to local visual arts, fundamentally they have
different missions than a public art center.
“There’s collections everywhere and they need to be
in one place,” Miriam Jordan says of the city’s art. “Our
heritage is scattered everywhere.”
Lane Arts Council Executive Directer Liora Sponko
says she and the LAC board would support a public art
center. “An art center would put us on the map as an
exceptional art city. It could bring cultural tourists for us."
Several are wary that the city does not have the
commitment to the visual arts, both financially and
culturally, to build a central public art hub.
“You notice there is never anything coming from the
city manager, very little from the mayor and definitely
complete silence from the City Council regarding the
cultural heritage of the city of Eugene,” artist Ross says.
Ross, for one, has long advocated that the city purchase
the U.S. Post Office building at 520 Willamette St., which
was for sale in years past, and turn it into a public art
museum and art center. The post office is home to federally
protected WPA murals, an effort that Ross spearheaded,
and thus anyone who buys the building cannot alter these
murals.
The post office is no longer on the market, but you can
read about Ross’ efforts at poempnw.wordpress.com.
Others have suggested the old, vacant Lane Community
College building downtown and EWEB’s old, vacant steam
plant as potential homes for an art center. Old buildings are
good for the arts as they typically cost less to rent.
“It’s a matter of who’s going to fund it? Who’s going to
create it?” Sponko asks.
THE
ONE-PERCENT
“You can imagine that half the people in this
community, or any community, don’t think the government
should be funding the arts at all,” Anderson says. She adds
that she’s unsure what role the city should play in the visual
arts community.
“Making sure there is equitable access and that we’re
reaching all areas of the community, that’s really what
we’re best at and probably what’s our most appropriate
role,” Anderson says.
But could the city initiate community partnerships to
finally build some sort of central public hub for the visual
arts?
“Yes, and we’re exploring a couple things that I can’t
really talk about,” Anderson says.
In the end, it always comes down to money. But perhaps
the city could finally reevaluate the One Percent for Art
ordinance and follow the recommendations from the
Eugene Public Art Plan to move to a two percent model.
“I think that Eugene’s Percent for Art program is
awesome and I think it could grow and expand,” Anderson
says. “That would immediately double our percent for
art budget for projects. The more funding that we have
through those — obviously we can create more art — but
we can also create the infrastructure to maintain and take
care of it.”
As Marquez and Anderson point out, changing the
percent for art ordinance is a policy decision that is up to
the Eugene City Council.
It’s also something citizens of Eugene at large need to
answer for themselves. Should the city increase its financial
support of the visual arts?
“I think that would be a great question to ask the
community,” Marquez says.