STARA - 14.11.2015, Blaðsíða 41

STARA - 14.11.2015, Blaðsíða 41
S T A R A V o l 5 . issu e 3 . 2 0 15 41 At that time, a law concerning pub- lic projects took effect stipulating that “at least 1% of the total build- ing expense of new public buildings should go towards art in the build- ing itself, or its surrounding area”. Since 2012, The Public Buildings Arts Fund and the one per cent stipulation have appertained the law concerning visual art, the fourth chapter of those laws bearing the title “Art on public buildings and in public spaces”. When the one per cent rule was legalized, the optimists thought it would render The Public Buildings Art Fund obsolete. The interplay be- tween those two elements - the one per cent rule and the laws governing the Public Buildings Art Fund - was meant to lead to the discontinua- tion of the fund. The idea was that before too long, art work would adorn every public building. But that development has been slow to say the least, not only because how meagre the fund is, but because the one per cent rule has routinely been ignored and more often than not it has been deemed “necessary” to use the money for other things when projects have exceeded the estimate. The Public Buildings Art Fund board has five experts; two repre- sentatives of the visual artists, two architects and a proxy for the min- istry. Their job is, on one hand, to serve as consultants concerning art works in new buildings, and on the other to allocate grants to projects in older buildings. Additionally, the fund has provided money to the res- toration of publicly owned art work. According to the law, the fund is meant to finance its operation itself, which is fine as long as the funds allow it. In 2003, the parliament contributed 8 million ISK into The Public Buildings Art Fund. In the following years that number was slightly cut back, although it was still 7.1 million ISK from 2008-2010. Since 2011 however, the contribu- tion has been 1.5 million ISK a year and will be the same in 2016, for the sixth year running. The SÍM office, which has managed the fund, has kept the daily operational budget at a bare minimum. Even so, the yearly contribution now does not cover anything but the daily operation. As far as I know the fund’s board meets as infrequently as it can to keep costs down and the need to meet is probably not high with so few projects going on. On the fund’s web site is a message saying that no application will be accepted in the foreseeable future. The question is whether those with authority to ap- propriate funds realize the predica- ment of the fund‘s board? Unfortunately visual artists have not always mounted a guard around The Public Buildings Art Fund. Some feel that the Icelandic name, Listskreytingasjóður, which literally means The Decorative Art Fund, is insulting because it equates art with decoration and want to disband the fund on those grounds. I also remember a discussion about the necessity to find a new name. As far as I know, a better one has not been found and hopefully people have ceased to be so concerned about the name because The Public Buildings Art Fund is important in so many ways. The project to improve peo- ple’s surroundings is a worthy one and there are still plenty of public buildings in use today that were completed before 1999. An active Public Buildings Art Fund creates work for visual artists with project grants and by making sure that the laws governing visual art on or in new public buildings are followed. I was fortunate enough to work on a project for the fund on the outpa- tient department of the psychiatric ward of the National University Hospital of Iceland at Kleppur. It was an extremely gratifying pro- ject and I was acutely aware of how much a small sum can accomplish. I doubt many funds could have achieved as much for as little as The Public Buildings Art Fund. And few are run for as little money as The Public Buildings Art Fund within the offices of SÍM. I think it is time we take up the mantle for The Pub- lic Buildings Art Fund and demand that it be allowed to do its job. The only thing that needs to be done is to raise the contribution. Then everything will work. “The project to improve people’s sur- roundings is a worthy one and there are still plenty of public buildings in use today that were completed before 1999.”
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