Local arts leaders sounded the alarm after comments from Mayor Lily Wu during last Tuesday’s Wichita City Council meeting. The Council will vote to adopt the proposed 2025 city budget tomorrow.
An exchange during last week’s Wichita City Council meeting has prompted some Wichita arts advocates to speak out in favor of a relatively new and little-understood public art funding program. During public comment on the 2025 Annual Operating Budget and 2025-2034 Capital Improvement Program, District 2 resident Faith Martin suggested temporarily suspending the city’s percent-for-art ordinance to make up for an expected 2026 budget shortfall. “Maybe we look at amending that public code when we have a shortfall,” she said. “Not that I am against the arts. … I love supporting our local art community. But when we look at what the core services are, we may have to walk that back until we can get ourselves to where we have a little more budget.” City Manager Robert Layton said the council would have to vote to repeal the 2019 ordinance in order to adjust the allocation of public art dollars. (In a Thursday interview with the Wichita Eagle, Wu said she was not interested in cutting public art funding.) In 2019, the Council approved an ordinance that allocated 2% of public project funds to public art projects, including related costs, such as ongoing maintenance of the city’s public art collection. That calculation will result in more than $1.7 million in spending on public art dollars in 2025, if the current budget proposal is approved in tomorrow’s city council meeting. That’s less than one quarter of one percent of the city’s proposed budget, or roughly $10 per household. You may be familiar with recent additions to the City of Wichita’s public art collection at Riverfront Stadium, Wichita Public Library locations, and at Chester I. Lewis Park Reflection Square Park in downtown Wichita — all funded prior to the passage of the percent for art ordinance. “The City has implemented public art for 20 years in an ad hoc fashion,” reads a slide presentation prepared by the city manager’s office and presented to the City Council in December 2019. “The ordinance amendments would codify a public art process and establish a funding source.” Under the new ordinance, public-arts funding is tied directly to public improvement projects, the application process is open and accessible, and artists and art consultants are involved at the beginning of each public improvement project. The Design Council — an advisory body appointed by the mayor — recommends where the dollars should be spent, and the City Council approves those allocations. After the August 13 council meeting, Kristin Beal, the executive director of Harvester Arts, circulated a letter urging people to contact their representatives in City Hall. If the city cuts funding for public art, she says she worries Wichita will lose artists, which will have a wider impact on the community. “It feels like we’re finally making strides to build a creative ecosystem here where artists can live and work here as artists,” she said. “If cuts are made, we will lose ground and lose artists. The arts attract and retain talent, and beyond artists, companies look to communities that have a strong arts ecosystem, because they know that their employees want that.” “Studies show that investments in public art can improve safety, provide tourism, attract business, add jobs and keep artists employed in our city,” Sonia Greteman said in a Facebook post shared by her agency the Greteman Group. Garvey, who also asked her contacts to reach out to their elected city leaders, cited the Americans for the Arts study released this spring that estimates Wichita’s nonprofit arts sector generated some $185 million to the local economy in 2022, up from an estimated $49 million in 2005. District 2 City Council Member Becky Tuttle, who spoke in favor of public arts spending at the August 13 meeting, also referenced the study in her comments.
Source: KLC Journal