Meeting_Body
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
AUGUST 20, 2020
Subject
SUBJECT: REPORT ON MOTION TO "UPLIFT THE HUMAN SPIRIT THROUGH METRO ART"
Action
ACTION: RECEIVE AND FILE
Heading
RECOMMENDATION
Title
RECEIVE AND FILE a report and approach to "Uplift the Human Spirit Through Metro Art" in response to the June 2020 Board motion (Attachment A).
Issue
ISSUE
At their June 2020 meeting, in a motion titled "Uplifting the Human Spirit Through Metro Art", the Board directed staff to return with a report on how Metro can a) Integrate Metro Art programs into our trains, busses; b) Champion artistic experimentation including provocative works that are responsive to the issues and concerns of our time; and c) Think about how artists might be included in the Reimagining of transportation. This report provides the requested response.
Background
BACKGROUND
As the Board discussed during the June 2020 Board meeting, we are currently in the midst of a pandemic and a civil rights movement. Metro staff were asked to leverage the arts as a way to bring people together in ways that are inspiring, welcoming, and add humanity to our public spaces and to strategically implement arts programming to balance Metro safety and recovery messaging, mitigate anxieties, and to reimagine the future of transportation in our region.
Metro has incorporated a small percentage (Attachment B) of transit construction costs to the integration of art into capital projects since the 1980s. The agency has received recognition for the Metro Art program's interdisciplinary approach, broad range of artists commissioned and community engagement in the process. Strong support has been demonstrated by funding awarded by federal, state and local sources as well as the respect and care given the works by the public. Over half of the artists Metro Art has commissioned are artists of color.
Discussion
DISCUSSION
The Board motion asks Metro to consider ways in which the arts might play a role that...
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