Not-So-Local Kansas City Public Art 1% Fight

KCUR takes on this local controversy that really only reminds us that even artists must work to secure political connections in this wicked little town: "Kansas City's one percent for art ordinance has been in effect since 1986. The first installation: "Bull Wall" by Kansas City native Robert Morris in the West Bottoms in 1992.

But during the last decade, there have been grumblings when commissions have gone to artists from outside the area — especially larger ones, such as the $1.3 million Sprint Center commission in 2006 to New York-based artist Chris Doyle.

Most recently, Kansas City's Municipal Art Commission selected Des Moines-based artist David Dahlquist of RDG Planning & Design for a $425,000 commission. The artwork is proposed as a colorful tiled gateway to the Kansas City Police Department's East Patrol Division and Crime Lab at Prospect Avenue and 27th Street.

The project was open to all artists in the United States, but out of 61 applicants, only one had ties to the area."

Comments

  1. artists use many mediums/media--a lot don't want to participate cuz their style isn't suitable, like fabric. its better for sculptors.

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  2. yeah, but NO local artists applied. They can't all be doing macrame, right? What it suggests is that there aren't too many artist around Killa City .... I mean real working artists. Getting tattoos and nose rings isn't working as an artist. So we have a jazz district though not a lot of indigenous jazz. And an art district without much indigenous art. Lucky we can import the real deal.

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  3. Caleb and the millenials say:
    We were all artists, but that was last week.
    This week, with our limited attentions spans, we're all entrepreneurs who are going to crate huge corporations with the creativity and originality we got by reading Diana Kander's book.
    Next week we may go back to growing organic kale and opeining an artisinal coffee shop.
    It's the same level of interest we'll have in the streetcar in about two years.
    How many decades did you say the bond payments were?

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  4. Offers should be made only to KC area artists so that our tax dollars stay here. That should be written into law. If no one from the area applied, maybe someone in charge should ask why and remedy the situation.

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