City Hall wants to restack arts board with business, development representatives

Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken unveils plans to overhaul city's Visual Arts Commission

(SiouxFallsArcofDreams.org)

The Sioux Falls business community would have more say in public art decisions under a new proposal coming from City Hall.

Mayor Paul TenHaken’s planning office Tuesday unveiled plans to overhaul eligibility terms for service on the city’s public arts advisory committee to include engineers, land developers and finance and business experts. Pending approval from the City Council, the long-standing Visual Arts Commission would be replaced with a newly-formed board to be called the Sioux Falls Arts Commission.

Planning Director Jeff Eckhoff told councilors at Carnegie Town Hall that right now, the Visual Arts Commission functions to review art being placed in and on city-owned property. The proposed Arts Commission, though, would “expand that beyond visual arts into performing arts and all other areas,” he said.

He also noted that right now, it’s mostly artists that make up the seven-member Visual Arts Commission. Its membership eligibility rules require that one member be on the board of directors of the Sioux Falls Arts Council and one other be a visual artist.

The Arts Commission would continue to have seven voting members with one a representative from an arts board and from the architectural and design, community development, finance and business industries. Three members would serve at-large.

Requiring members of more specific backgrounds will better round the city’s arts policy, Eckhoff said.

“One of the things with arts is we don’t always have a good balance of fiscal awareness,” he said.

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