North Adams Arts Commission Learning Responsibilities
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The newly established Public Arts Commission is feeling out its role as advocate and arbiter for public art displays.
The commission held its first meeting recently to review its establishing language and consider its next steps. Erica Manville was elected as chairman, Julia Dixon as vice chairman and Cynthia Quinones as secretary. The other commissioners are William Blackmer, Nancy Ziter, Eric Kerns and Gail Sellers.
The commission was created by the City Council at the request of Mayor Richard Alcombright, who had found himself making decisions on public art displays.
"While I've certainly in the last 10 years found a new appreciation for art and culture ... I really don't know a lot about this stuff," he told the commission at its first meeting on Dec. 21. "I really felt pigeonholed and tried to make good decisions. ...
"I wanted to put it in front of people who can really make informed decisions."
City Councilor Kate Merrigan, who chaired the Government Committee that shepherded the commission to fruition, opened the meeting and led the commissioners through each section of the ordinance to familiarize them with it.
The commission will oversee exterior displays placed on city owned property not assigned to another entity and that can be seen by the public.
It will have no purview over art at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, for example, because that property is under control of the museum even though it is owned by the city. It also leaves out state-owned property and private property.
There had been questions about whether concerts would be considered, but General Government had determined those already required licensing by other government entities.
"We're talking about permanent, or semi-permanent installations," said Merrigan.
Kerns said the commission should function more as a promoter of public art. "We're an advocate board and where you're going to get a license isn't advocating for you," he said.
The commissioners will, however, oversee contracts for public art between the city and the artists.
Ziter suggested the commissioners look at copies of current contracts to see what is needed.
"We're starting from scratch so we have to create rules and regulations," she said. "I think as time goes on there's going to be changes."
Manville said she researched several municipal sites with arts commission and pointed to Salem as having similarities to North Adams.
"They were sort of the model I was thinking for this first meeting," she said, pointing to its call for artists that the city could use as a starting point.
Ziter disagreed, saying the commission had to get the basics established first, such as doing an inventory of art, reviewing current contracts and developing an application.
"I think we need to back up ... we're not even at that point to call for artists," she said. "This commission is not at that point to go out and get artists. I think eventually we'll get to that point and give grants to have artists ... Right now we have absolutely nothing we've established ... I think we have to organize ourselves as a commission to get those things in place."
The discussion turned to setting short-term and long-term goals to address the issues brought up. And to set meetings for Tuesday nights with the assumption that the first meetings may be longer to establish these initial benchmarks.
Kerns also thought the commission should come up with a public statement that's clear about its purpose.
"I think we need a public statement that is not this ordinance ... that thing reads like we're the art police and I don't think that's what we want to be we want to be an advocacy board.
"Think about how we're going to present ourselves in a way that's going to show we're here to support this."
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