| No Public Art for You |
| Posted: February 02, 2010 | |||
 Artist's rendition of Donald Lipski's "Psyche (The Butterfly)" planned for the new Auroria campus Science Building addition One of the cornerstones for the funding of public art in Denver has been the "1% for Art" program, which is more than a nice sentiment: the 1% baseline has been in effect since the original Art in Public Places bill was written into law back in 1977 generating $8.2 million for 435 works of public art. In the "tough time/tough measures" vein of thought, crafty number crunchers have found a loophole which has allowed new civic projects to come to fruition sans art. An unfortunate casualty has been artist Donald Lipski (best known locally for "The Yearling" outside the DPL) whose recent commission for a sculpture to grace the new Science Building on the Auraria campus was nearly nixed (thankfully Auraria was able to scramble and come up with the funds for an abridged version of the piece.) The state legislature simply must find a way to stop the madness and secure the funding for public art that the law intended, if not for soul of the residents of Colorado (who need the presence of beautiful things to keep us civilized and sane) then for the quantified financial benefits that the public art program has realized for the state's creative community which employed over 186,000 residents in 2007 (per the Colorado Council on the Arts.) - KLH
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