In many large cities, when new buildings go up, there’s a requirement to include public art in the construction project. They’re known as, ‘One percent for art’ programs. In most smaller cities and towns, those programs don’t exist. But one, in southwestern Virginia, has figured out another way to do it.
Sometimes, if there’s no one-percent for art program, there’s a foundation or an arts council that will fund public art. But even in a town known for it’s artist and downright, artsy-ness there’s nothing like that in Floyd. So the people at Floyd's Jacksonville Arts Center had to find a creative way of putting art out in the community, literally, outside, where people would encounter it all over town.
“So we started out with that idea. Could we go to people saying, ‘we would like to have a sculpture at your place for a year and people will be on a tour and they’ll come see the sculpture there.
Charlie Brouweris on the arts center’s board.
“And, we tried to keep the fee low enough so that the site could afford it but also so it would entice some artists or some people new to making outdoor sculptures to want to try it.”
$250; $50 goes to the Arts Center and the artist gets the rest. Not a windfall for the arts, but apparently the price was attractive enough.
“It was amazing how many people just said ‘yes’ right away and started writing checks and saying ‘Here, I want to be part of the program.’
Leia Wood, Gallery and Educational Director and administrator of this “Art Gallery Without Walls.”
“We have more sites, people who want to pay to be in the program than we have artworks to put up this year.”
The first one to go up, came from Brouwer, a well known sculptor whose work has been seen around the region and the country. A wooden figure of a man is about to start climbing up a ladder. It’s called, “Hope is…” And it seems right at home outside the new Floyd Innovation Center building. It’s made of locust wood and it’s stained with an oil-based preservative. Brouwer’s done many outdoor installations, so now he’s giving workshops to artists interested in creating work for this public art project in how to build them to withstand the elements.
“And those are considerations that people who make art really haven’t had to deal with yet because we haven’t had this public sculpture program in place in any way that they’ve been involved in. So I think that as it come s to next year more artists in the area are going to say yeah I can do that I can figure this out, I'm looking at examples I’m seeing these other pieces that are already put up and I cI can do that too.”
Now, in addition to the music and crafts that draws people to Floyd, there will be arts works outdoors. The project is meant to build on the artsy reputation of the town and give people a moment of surprise, of wonder, of art as they roam around town. Even the local oil company, Clark Oil & Gas is putting one in, there’s one at Chantilly Farms, a local music and cultural venue, The Jessie Peterman Library, The Green Man Inn, Blue Mountain School, and Tuggles Gap Restaurant and Inn. The message is sort of, that “Arts Works with Anything” The project’s actual name is, “Art Works for Us.”
