In 1996, the University of Houston enacted a “percent-for-art” policy which set aside a small percentage of the university’s income towards public art’s projects on campus. The policy flourished at the university financing roughly 400 public art works to date and other colleges in Texas followed. Recently, Texas Tech University paid Michael Stutz, a California-based sculptor, $350,000 to construct four seven-foot tall faces that were placed on the schools campus. The giant faces were financed by a “percent-for-art policy” and now breath new life into the campus. We bring this up because these “percent-for-art” policies seems to be gaining more and more popularity, and for good reason for they provide work for artists, provide university’s with some sense of artistic creativity, and provide the public with free art. Since Baruch is also a public University it would be interesting to see what the future might hold and if it two will start enacting some sort of “percent-for-art” policy.
Link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/us/if-you-build-it-on-public-university-campuses-1-percent-must-be-public-art.html?ref=design
