Since 1983, New York City’s Percent for Art program has been commissioning visual artists to create public art at City buildings and sites. Over 150 projects throughout the five boroughs have been completed since the program began, and approximately 55 are now in development. The program commissions, conserves, or purchases works of art and brings artists into the design process in order to enrich the City’s civic and community buildings. Artists have created public art for firehouses, schools, police precincts, courthouses, hospitals, ferry terminals, juvenile detention centers, parks, sanitation facilities, and sewage treatment plants. It’s more than likely that the neighborhood where you live or work has been enriched by one of these unique public works. These public works of art can stand on their own or be integrated into the architecture or site. For example, some artists have designed functional elements such as fences and gates while others have created murals or sculpture that are not part of the structure.

Percent for Art budgets range from $30,000 to $400,000 per site. The money for projects is allocated from the City’s actual construction budget for each building. The law requires that no less than 1% of the first $20,000,000, plus no less than one half of 1% of the amount exceeding $20,000,000, be allocated for the artwork. The annual spending cap for the program is $1,500,000 dollars.

The Percent for Art program is always seeking new artists to participate in its ongoing commissioning process. For each new project, an artist selection panel consisting of artists, arts professionals, the architect, and agency representatives is convened. This procedure usually occurs at the design stage so that the chosen artist or artists can be involved from the beginning. In this way, the artwork becomes an integral part of the project rather than an addition at the project’s completion.

The Percent for Art artist slide registry is an important resource for the program. Submitting slides to the registry is the best way for artists to have their work considered for a Percent for Art commission. The architects, advisors, panelists, and City agencies for each project consult the registry. The Percent for Art staff prepares a slide presentation from the registry for each panel meeting. The registry is open to any professional visual artist, and there is no residency requirement for a Percent for Art commission.

In addition to being chosen through the slide registry, other artists are also recommended by panelists. The criteria for consideration include such factors as the architect’s proposal, the nature of the community, the building’s functions, and the project’s budget.

The panel reviews the artists’ slides from the registry and from the panelists’ recommendations. Based on the artists’ most current work and any previous commissions, the panel then invites several artists to submit proposals and interview for a specific project. Previous public art experience is not required. The most important way an artist’s work is conveyed to the panel is through her or his slides. Investment in good photographic documentation is the key to a professional presentation.

City construction projects generally take from three to five years to design and build. A commissioned artist presents her or his design to the agency, the architect, the community, and the Art Commission for approval. The Percent Program acts as a liaison between the artists and the many entities they must encounter. Percent for Art staff help negotiate the artist’s contract, work alongside the artist with the architecture and construction manager, work out payment issues, and interface with community groups.

The selected artist has a contract with the architect or the City agency sponsoring the project. The contract addresses the artist’s responsibilities, design and fabrication milestones, and payment schedule for the project. The art allocation must cover all costs of the artwork, including design fee, fabrication, installation, transportation and insurance costs.

Currently, the Percent for Art program has over 55 projects in various phases of completion. The following projects will be completed by the end of this summer:

• Cadence Giersbach’s porcelain enamel medallions at P.S. 212 and Noel Copeland’s ceramic plaques at P.S. 230—both in Jackson Heights, Queens—will feature images from the beloved neighborhood gardens.

• Jane Greengold’s multi-work installation at Middle College High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn is based on spiral forms found in nature and science.

• Lane Twitchell’s cut paper mural at P.S. 161 in Richmond Hill, Queens will feature scenes from the history of New York, Queens, and the neighborhood.

• Mierle Ukeles’s wall installation at Engine Company 75 Firehouse in the Bronx will create the image of the 90 foot ladder truck on the side of the wall using the actual bricks of the building. Glass blocks etched with the names of all of the firemen who have fallen in the line of duty in the Bronx since 1900 will also be featured. This is the first new firehouse built in the City in twenty years.

• Carl Cheng’s Community Garden on the East River Pier 11 in lower Manhattan is part of a new ferry terminal project. It will include a canopied reflecting pool on the end of the pier. Shadow Garden is another aspect of Cheng’s project on display at the edge of the pier’s esplanade.

• Tim Rollins + K.O.S.’s bronze sculpture and three paintings, Themes from the Iliad and the Odyssey, will be on display at Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx. The artwork was made in collaboration with residents in detention.

• Three projects at the new Children’s Center in Manhattan on the Bellevue Hospital campus for the Administration of Children’s Services will include: Song for a Child, a mosaic mural by Tomie Arai; four framed art quilts by Michael Cummings titled Carnival Time, Kitty with Flowers, Coral Reef, and Butterfly/Monarch; and Bulletin Board, a mosaic mural by Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan.

• Lorenzo Pace’s granite sculpture The Triumph of the Spirit will be on display at the site of the African Burial Ground in Foley Square in Manhattan.

• Julie Dermansky’s linoleum floor design, Yellow Bird Floor, will be at the 2nd Street Day Care Center in Brooklyn.

• Anton Van Dalen’s porcelain enamel designs will be shown at P.S. 20 in the Bronx.

Artists who are interested in submitting their work for review may write for an application to: Percent for Art, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, 330 West 42nd St., 14th Floor, New York, NY 10036, or download the form from our Web site: www.ci.nyc.ny.us.

Charlotte Cohen is the Director of the Percent for Art program.

Roberto Garcia

The BCA Development Corporation, Bronx Council on the Arts; the Bronx Writers Corp; and New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs are collaborating on the Book Arts Career Development Program. The program seeks to introduce teens between the ages of 14-19 and living in Tier II Temporary Housing to the variety of occupations available in the Book Arts industry. The program seeks to serve 50 teens annually from four temporary housing facilities—three within the Bronx and one in Harlem—for a 44-week period. An important aspect of the program is its focus on creative writing as an educational and developmental tool. Such creative writing experiences will help the students engage more freely and comfortably in personal expression as well as prepare them for the workplace.

Having evolved from DCA’s Cultural Arts Job Skills Training and Internship Program, this program narrows the focus to concentrate on providing participants with instruction and internships in the production and distribution of books. The teens will be exposed to the world of work and develop a greater appreciation of the wide diversity of jobs that can be generated by the book arts-related industry—such as editing, illustrating, designing, and binding. Students will also learn how these jobs relate to and complement each other.

Under the supervision of instructors from the Bronx Writers Corp, the participants will spend two afternoons a week at their housing facility working on writing projects. They will also spend two afternoons a week at a paid internship site during the 12-week internship component.

Throughout the program, teens will maintain journals of their writing and assist in developing and publishing a writing project (e.g., anthology), as well as attend cultural events, field trips, and a series of lectures throughout New York City. In addition to workshop sessions, there will also be a Book Arts & Arts Related Job Fair that will enable the students to learn job readiness and preparation skills, computer training, and arts-related entrepreneurship.

The BCA Development Corporation is taking the lead on administering the program with assistance from DCA. Other key players include staff members of the housing facilities, organizations specializing in some aspect of book arts, internship sites, and other arts institutions.

Funding for the Book Arts Career Program has been provided through a three year grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, with additional support and funding from DCA, the NYC Board of Education, Con Edison, and the NYC Department of Homeless Services.

For further information, please contact Project Director Roberto S. Garcia at (718) 842-3955.

Roberto S. Garcia is the Director of the BCA Development Corp.

The information contained in the above article is current as of its June 2000 publication date. Please be advised that this information may be out of date.