City of Lloydminster council is reviewing the public art policy, which has seen a number of changes since its inception.
A number of items were changed and definitions were added for asset management and monuments at the Sept. 16 Governance and Priorities Committee meeting.
There were also changes to the number of terms member can serve on the Public Art Advisory Committee from one to three and public art was changed to be property of the city.
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Natalie Clysdale, manager of the Lloydminster Museum and Archives, gave some insight into what moral rights are and why they’re important for the city.
“Artists have moral rights. If an artist were to retain moral rights to an art piece, we can’t make changes to it,” she said. “Let’s say it needed to be painted a different colour, or we needed to make repairs to it that would affect the interpretation of the piece or the meaning behind the piece, we have the ability to do that because the artist is signing over moral rights for that piece.”
Maintenance costs for the pieces of art were also a topic of discussion and maintenance costs will be part of the initial submission.
“Currently, as the policy stands, any art that we put in a park or any other facility, the budget has to come from that department the artwork is located on,” said Clysdale. “The financial implication for maintenance is part of the initial submission. So, the artist does have to outline what they anticipate to be maintenance costs and we incorporate that into the administration of the artwork.”
In the policy, 6.3 outlines operation funds will be provided to asset managers for maintenance of public art in their facility or park.
“I think the intention of the changes to the way we’re dealing with the maintenance is kind of two-fold,” said Tracy Simpson, the city’s executive manager of community development services, noting they want to be able to track maintenance costs.
“One is we don’t have a large reserve for public art, so based on advice from the committee as well as review with administration, we want to ensure the money we’re putting away for public art goes to the development of public art and not just to maintenance. We wanted to start budget accordingly for maintenance.”
She says the policy applies to property they operate.
“So, 3.1.1 says all city-owned facilities and property, the intention is only the ones we operate,” said Simpson.
The budget implication of this item will see the city allocate a minimum of 1 per cent of the annual capital surplus to the public arts reserve. The item will return for a future council meeting for decision.
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