The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
End of Elk Avenue waiting for art
By Mark Reaman
The Crested Butte Town Council adopted a formal policy last month dealing with art in public places in town.
The policy resulted from work with the Creative District commission and is meant to “enhance the cultural environment of the Creative District, to create a strong sense of place in downtown Crested Butte, and to increase wandering through Crested Butte’s central business district.”
The new policy calls for a small portion of most public projects to include a two percent allocation for art. It would be the “capstone” of the project. The council also has the discretion to spend other public funds on art projects in town.
According to Crested Butte community development director Michael Yerman, the top priority locations for public art projects in town are at the end of Elk Avenue on the west side of town, at the Recreation Path bridge in the north end of town, at the Four-way Stop, at the Rainbow Park pond and at the future Red Lady Avenue roundabout at the entrance to town.
“We have a lot of art in public places in town but no official policy,” explained Yerman. “This helps make clear how the town will embrace and encourage art.”
“We’ve heard a lot of concerns that a piece at the end of Elk would never be funded because we would never have a capital project there,” added Crested Butte Creative District coordinator Hilary Henry “While it’s true that the end of Elk would likely never have a capstone piece, the council could decide to fund a project in that location through the five-year Capital Project budget.”
The policy should guide where and how art in town is installed, maintained and donated. While the Creative District commission is the first board to consider and recommend projects, the final decision on whether to allow an art project is up to the Town Council.
“The policy applies to both permanent and temporary art,” said Henry. “People are excited about having rotating pieces of public art. Best practices currently for public arts collections also recommend having a mix of permanent and temporary art. We gave the policy flexibility to to be used for either.
The two percent allocation on projects would be for projects that cost more than $100,000 and are located in the Creative District or in a public park. Any such art project would be expected to be in existence for at least five years.
“The town would be making significant investments for some town projects so the public art pieces can be a capstone on specific projects,” said Yerman.
In fact, the commission is soliciting ideas for a piece of art to mark the entrance to the Center for the Arts while it is under construction.
