Thursday, April 25, 2024
The Granbury City Council this week adopted a Public Arts Policy drafted by the city and the newly created Granbury Cultural Arts Commission (GCAC).
It unanimously agreed, however, to strike the public financing portion of the agreement with the understanding that it will be revisited in plenty of time before a new budget year starts on Oct. 1.
The commission is asking that at least 2 percent of the total Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) revenues be allocated for public arts projects, which is permissible under the law.
City Manager Chris Coffman said this would amount to about $14,000.
Mayor Pro Tem Tony Mobly, who made the motion at Tuesday night’s regular council meeting to adopt the policy but without the public funds promise, said he supports the request and feels that it will ultimately be met with “100 percent” approval.
However, he explained to commission chair Heather Cleveland that he preferred to “have a plan in place instead of funding something and not knowing what the plan is.”
Cleveland expressed a willingness to provide such a plan, and agreed that a delay in the public funding contract would pose no problems.
She stated that the commission is working on a public arts master plan, using the city of McKinney’s as a template.
She said that the commission will meet with a consultant about the master plan next week. She also stated that further discussion would give the group more time to address the council’s concerns and would be “time well spent.”
The master plan is separate from the Public Arts Policy that the council adopted, but Cleveland said that the master plan will address each specific section of the code. One of those sections has to do with public funding.
The policy provides perameters for the city regarding donations of public art, which City Manager Chris Coffman indicated was needed.
“I just want you to know I’ve had people want to donate art,” he stated when it appeared that adoption of the overall policy might be delayed. “I don’t have a policy to guide these people through.”
When Mobly was told that the policy could be adopted with the ability to revise the financial portion at a later date, he readily agreed to vote in approval.
The policy provides a definition of public art and details about both public and private funding, how the policy will be administered, community involvement, site selection, maintenance, ownership and copyright issues, and more.
The council formed the seven-member GCAC last year because having such a commission opens the door to grant possibilities that could increase Granbury’s appeal to tourists.
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