Budget for airport art too stingy, some say

Sacramento County supervisors on Tuesday approved the largest budget for public art in county history, $8 million to buy and maintain art for the upcoming airport expansion.

Rather than celebrating the windfall for the regional gateway, the local arts community was split.

The $8 million plan – approved on a 4-1 vote – calls for using $2 million to create an endowment, with the interest going toward maintaining the works and creating rotating exhibits at the airport. Another $1 million is earmarked for administrative costs, leaving $5 million for initial art acquisition within the $1.3 billion expansion project.

The spending plan marks the first time the county broke from a county ordinance stipulating that 2 percent of a public project's total construction costs should be spent on art.

The $8 million is 1.7 percent of applicable costs, according to county airport officials.

If the full 2 percent were allocated, the art budget would climb to $9.4 million.

While some viewed the endowment as visionary, others were critical, arguing that it takes away from the actual dollars to be used for art.

"A $2 million endowment is just a huge chunk out of that $8 million," local sculptor Garr Ugalde told the board.

Les Birleson, a member of an art advisory group that opposed the plan, said that given the huge size of the planned terminal large, expensive art would be needed to create the signature showpieces the gateway to Sacramento deserves.

Supervisor Roger Dickinson, the lone dissenting vote, said the county should stick to the 2 percent formula.

"The bottom line here is we are feeling pressure to reduce the costs … and it's public art that is paying the price," Dickinson said.

"We ought not to be solving the problem on the back of what sets us apart."

Dickinson helped persuade the board to up the allocation from 1 percent to 2 percent in 1997.He said the endowment may be a good idea but questioned whether the ordinance allowed it.

Some within the art community – noting the difficulties in sustaining art programs – said the plan could become a national model.

"It will be talked about in national circles," said Kim Curry-Evans, who runs 40 Acres Art Gallery and is a member of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.

"This is going to be something else Sacramento is known for."

Added arts commission chairwoman Linda Merksamer: "The endowment isn't just forward-thinking, it's wise."

The amount of funds for public art typically is derived by calculating applicable construction costs.

In this case the $8 million figure was negotiated between Hardy Acree, who heads the county's airport system, and Rhyena Halpern, executive director of the arts commission.

"This is not the number that I started at and this is not the number that she started at, but we think is reasonable," Acree said.

Acree has been negotiating over airport expansion costs with the airlines, which pay the bulk of construction costs through gate and passenger fees.

The replacement Terminal B – a three-story glass-walled structure – is scheduled to open in 2011.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Ed Fletcher, (916) 321-1269.