Thanks Pat for putting me on the front of the VOICES section in today’s Argus.

Now who is snickering, Kermit?

Crimestoppers has announced today that they are giving out a $1000 reward to whoever can lead them to the suspect. I guess the person better hope they have more friends then enemies.

I addressed the city council tonight about public art approval.

They chuckled when I came forward (or at least the ones I drew cartoons about).

The debate about the commemorative plaque is priceless, especially when Costello doesn’t know what art is and Knudson goes into an emotional speech about a coffeehouse mural. I was in stitches.

Here is the video Link once available, get out your popcorn:

http://www.siouxfalls.org/Cityclerk/agendas_minutes.aspx

This is what I said:

I wanted to start out by saying I’m not here to tell you how you should vote on the plaque resolution tonight. That’s your decision to make, and I hope you make the right one.

I’m here to address bigger issues this plaque resolution has brought to light; the financing and selection of public art in Sioux Falls.

I want to start out by saying that private funding of public art projects corrupts our political system. Not just in Sioux Falls but the rest of our nation.

I have a great interest in public art, and I am a supporter, especially when the public benefits from it in awareness and education. Notice I use the word ‘Public’. That is who is supposed to benefit from public art. Private industry, people with deep pockets, or supporters of political candidates should not be the focus of ‘Public’ art.

I have closely watched public art programs in our city over the last few years including the Visual Arts Commission and SculptureWalk. In fact I have applied to be on the VAC twice. The first time my application got ‘misplaced’ and the second time it was confirmed by a letter that it was received. There have been two vacancies that have existed for over a year now. As far as I know, my application is still sitting in a file cabinet at City Hall, and I’m still willing to serve.

I have seen some pretty major issues with the way public art is approved in our city, but there is some very simple solutions:

First, Eliminate conflicts of interest
This is referring to the Visual Arts Commission. One member had already voluntarily resigned in the past due to conflict of interest, but only after it was pointed out by a citizen. Do other members of the VAC have direct conflicts of interest? For instance the chair, Jerry Hauck. He is either a owner or co-owner of a private gallery and foundry. Wouldn’t some of his VAC decisions benefit his business? And vice chair, Stacey McMahan, is employed by an architecture firm that frequently works on city projects, does some of her decisions benefit her employer? These are important questions to ask. It seems these conflicts only ensure ‘certain’ artists’ art gets displayed in our community. Eliminate these conflicts and you will have a fair advisory board.

Secondly, Eliminate the powers of Parks and Rec to approve ANY art, plaque or memorial on their own.
I think if you eliminate any jurisdiction they may have over public art you will be guaranteed that no more public art will slip through the cracks of the approval process. The VAC was purposely designed to be an advisory group to the city, let them do their job, not the Parks & Rec or any other city department.

And, Lastly, Eliminate private funding of public art, or tighten the restrictions on private donations.
Public art should be publicly funded to ensure accountability and transparency. I know that private money helps. The Washington Pavilion and SculptureWalk both benefit from private funds. I think they can still accept private funds, but there should be tight restrictions on the donating party, such as maximum donation limits, and what perks, schwag and kickback the donating party receives. Just because someone donates money to create a sculpture that will be put on public property, like at the Law enforcement center & County courthouse, doesn’t mean the public should be left out of the process of approval or that there shouldn’t be an open call for the art. Lets take the Downtown Library sculpture for example. Was that approved by the VAC? Who purchased it? The City? Private funds? How was that piece selected? It seems the donating parties are the ones choosing the art, not the public, as in the case of the mayor’s plaque and the pieces I mentioned above.

I want to finish by saying, You all have the power to make one OR all of these changes. I hope that you will closely look at instituting some of these changes, for the betterment of our community and for the sake of public art in Sioux Falls. I agree that Sioux Falls has the infrastructure, and the potential to become an arts aware community, but only if we include the community in that process.

H/T Craig

 

http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/Bush_asshole_mosaic

The birth of their daughter: 

Lilienne

(gee, I wonder if mommy with have trouble remembering how to spell that?)

BORN
June 2, 2007 at 5:17 AM

WEIGHT
6 lbs 8 oz

LENGTH
19.5 inches

The Argus Leader , FINALLY printed my letter to the editor about Arts Night. I want everyone to know that I have been contacted by several artists since the first letter I wrote in support of my dissent. It’s time that artists in our community start asking for accountability for their tax dollars that are being spent on public art and organizations. If they don’t want to be accountable, it’s time to close the purse.

Arts groups should be honest
By Scott L. Ehrisman
Published: May 31, 2007 – Argus Leader

In Paul Schiller’s recent letter about Arts Night, he failed to tell readers a few important details. Like how he represents both SculptureWalk and the Washington Pavilion as either a present or past board member, a juror or a financial contributor. In fact, the company he founded, Lawrence & Schiller, was a major sponsor of Arts Night this year.

Schiller states, “When an artist submits work, … you do so knowing that it’s a credible organization that has a fair and qualified selection process. That is the case with both the Washington Pavilion’s Arts Night and our ever-popular SculptureWalk.” How does he know? Is Schiller a juror for Arts Night? If he was on the jury, how did the jurying process maintain impartiality since his piece was one of the “selected” ones? Is that his definition of fair?

Last year was the first time in Arts Night history the Washington Pavilion decided to jury donations. This year wasn’t the first time I made a little noise about the process. I told the group last year that I thought it was unfair to jury donations it solicits.

Schiller is correct. Donations are voluntary, but the Washington Pavilion solicits those donations through the mail. It would be like signing up to volunteer to work at the Banquet, and when you show up to work your shift, you’re told to go home.

Was rejecting my donation this year repercussions for my dissent last year?

SculptureWalk and the Washington Pavilion receive public subsidies and use public property. I think SculptureWalk and the Washington Pavilion should continue to receive this assistance because, as I have said before, a free visual arts center in our community is very important. But with that assistance should come transparency and accountability to the public.

Schiller posing as the gatekeeper of secrecy for these organizations doesn’t help their credibility, even if he doesn’t care about his own. They should be honest about their operations and processes. That’s how organizations like the Washington Pavilion and SculptureWalk build credibility. Honesty and integrity will never backfire on you.

SculptureWalk made the wise decision this year to release the names of jurors for the first time in its history. I think the Washington Pavilion Arts Night committee also should release the names of its jurors out of respect for the artists who were rejected and accepted. The argument that artists will retaliate against it is hogwash. That assumption is an insult.

Schiller has a very skewed view of publicly funded art organizations – and that’s no secret.

The guerilla artist in our midst made a crucial mistake in their latest attempt. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Tell me if you know what it is.

I took this yesterday, and was surprised it turned out. The wind was blowing so hard on the observation tower, I almost fell off.

Recently I told you about the Argus Leader’s interrogation of me about the recent graffiti incidents. Then they wrote this article. The article made me laugh because it was ridiculous to assume I did the art, maybe Nestor was joking, maybe he wasn’t – who knows with those paranoid freaks at the Argus.

They should have at least printed my cartoon with the article!

Are you the city’s guerrilla artist?
By Nestor Ramos

 

It started as a straightforward assignment: find out what you can about the odd new graffiti that’s been showing up around town.
It wasn’t long before it became an obsession.
“Have you seen Ronald McDonald? He’s holding a bomb.” I asked this question so many times that it started to sound reasonable to me.
Maybe we should back up a few days.
The May 14 issue of the New Yorker magazine included a profile of a man known only as Banksy, a wildly talented English graffiti artist with a knack for self-promotion and an anarchist political streak: two (male) cops kissing in the subway; a rat dumping toxic waste down the sewer.
In the grand tradition of glamorizing criminality, the work of Banksy and his contemporaries has become known as Guerrilla Art. Which is sort of like calling a bar fight Guerrilla Boxing.
That same naming convention works for a lot of things.
Officer: “Did you just hit that man with a pie?”
Larcenist: “No, it was a guerrilla makeover.”
But we’re off track again.
After I’d absorbed the article about Banksy, I started to notice the new graffiti. On a prominent building in downtown Sioux Falls, Ronald McDonald was holding a cartoon bomb (perfectly round, long fuse). Like Banksy, the artist – I use the word lightly – had stenciled the McDonald’s mascot onto the wall.
Another stencil left the puzzling message that has since appeared elsewhere: “DISINFORM.” At least three of them were in town at one point.
Clearly, Sioux Falls has its own self-style guerrilla artist – albeit one lacking a bit in the talent department.
Police spokesman Loren McManus said someone called the police information tip line from the East Coast to say the stencils looked like Banksy’s handiwork. But since Banksy is (a) British, (b) extraordinarily wealthy and (c) clever, he was immediately ruled out as a suspect.
McManus said there are no suspects. Typically, the only way such vandals get caught is in the act or, perhaps, bragging to the wrong person.
It’s not just Ronald McDonald. Bart Simpson is on at least two walls in town. Local artist Scott Ehrisman, who sometimes draws cartoons for the Argus Leader (and is everybody’s prime suspect), said he’d heard about a bomber dropping hearts that was painted on an electrical box. I couldn’t find it.
Listen, there’s nothing funny about property damage.
Let’s be more precise: There’s nothing funny about this property damage. If property damage were inherently unfunny, Oliver Hardy would’ve been just another obese man filing piano insurance claims.
But spray painting inane slogans and cartoon characters on walls is not the funny kind of property damage.
I called Mike Beaver, who owns a place called Dischordia, a spot where young people of particular tastes – punk rock, tattered clothes, Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers – congregate for concerts and such.
I asked him whether he knew who was doing it.
“I don’t know, but someone kind of preached to the choir with us,” Beav­er said.
Some night about a month ago, someone spray-painted Ronald McDonald and something nasty about the governor on the back wall at Dischordia.
“Why are they coming to tell me about Gov. Rounds?” Beaver wondered. Beaver’s politics are sympathetic to this position. His wallet is not.
“All you’re doing is costing me money. It was up for about a month. I had to just kind of cover it up with some spray paint,” Beaver said.
I asked Ehrisman whether he had any insight. He made the Banksy connection, too.
“I went and investigated it,” Ehrisman said. “You can get those stencils online.”
Ehrisman said stencils are “sort of an art movement that’s been around for years. … I’m assuming that some younger punk rock kids are doing it. But you never know.”
At this point, I had resorted to wild accusations.
“I think you did it,” I said.
“No,” Ehrisman said. “If I did it, it would be original.”
It’s a fair point.
I drove out to Dischordia, though there hasn’t been a concert there for a week or so. I parked around back and saw where Beaver had painted over the graffiti.
But painted on the wall in a diagonal line were three fresh stencils: Kentucky Fried Chicken patriarch Col. Sanders, a pair of sunglasses on his face, a pair of devil horns on his head.
I may never learn who’s behind the recent graffiti spate – I’ve been disinformed – and those who paid to have the paint removed may never get their money back. But while I’ve got you here, let me just ask you one thing: Was it you?