City Council agrees to hire consultant to develop public arts commission for Charlottesville

There has been no official group to handle the realm of public art in Charlottesville since the Piedmont Council for the Arts folded in 2017, but City Council took a step forward to creating one at their meeting on March 16.

“Today, staff is proposing that the city create a public art commission that would manage the city’s public art collection,” said Deputy City Manager James Freas.

For many years, the city worked with an organization called Art in Place to install and maintain public sculptures such as a giant whale tail visible from the U.S. 250 bypass. The Piedmont Council for the Arts took over in 2015. Some of the works have fallen into disrepair and Freas said the new group would be responsible for their removal.

Freas said the new organization would also provide guidance to Council related to the donation of public art.

“It’s not uncommon for folks to reach out to the city because they have a piece they’d like to donate, or they are a mural artist who would like to donate their work and their time to the city,” Freas said. “So this body would advise on those donations.”

Staff recommended Council allocate $100,000 in the FY2027 budget to hire a consultant to get the commission off the ground and establish criteria. They’d also be asked to evaluate the potential of restoring a program called Percent for Art to help fund public artwork.

Freas said this effort would be separate from an initiative being led by New City Arts to create a network of artists and improve the overall arts ecosystem.

Council agreed to the idea and will hold a second reading on the spending of $100,000 at their meeting on April 6.

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