PROVIDENCE – The city will launch a comprehensive public arts program, leaders announced on Thursday, to include planning annually for new projects that could help attract tourists to the city and enhance neighborhoods.
The funding for the public art would come from a variety of sources, according to the Art in City Life master plan, including the city’s annual budget, private philanthropy and grants as well as contributions from developers who receive city incentives.
Providence also plans to seek additional funding generated by permit fees and the state tax on hotel rooms. The thought is that the new hotel rooms being created in Providence will result in increased revenue, some of which is already shared with the Providence Tourism Council, which provides grants to the city for tourism promotion. The city department of Art Culture and Tourism “should work with the Providence Tourism Council to capture a portion of this increase in revenues,” according to the new master plan.
To generate funds for the commissioning of art in public places, the master plan, commissioned by Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, proposes the following:
- The city should begin applying an existing policy of 1 percent for public art, through a 1980 ordinance, to all eligible city-funded construction projects. These could include construction or remodeling of buildings, decorative or commemorative structures, parks, streets and sidewalks within the city.
- The city’s Department of Art Culture and Tourism should work with the city’s planning and finance departments to determine the best way to identify these eligible construction projects, and to allocate an amount equal to at least 1 percent of each project budget to the public art fund.
- A portion of the 5 percent state hotel tax already goes to the Providence Tourism Council. The city’s arts and culture department receives grant funding from the tourism council and should now seek a portion of the anticipated increase in hotel tax revenues, associated with the construction of five new hotels expected to open in 2018.
- The ACT will also seek to gain state approval for allocation of a portion of city permit fees for the public art program.
- Developers who are seeking city incentives or zoning variances “should be given the option to commission public art or contribute to the Art in City Life Fund as a condition of their incentive or variance.”
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
