LACCD Budgets $30 Million for Art Installations

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Community College District recently adopted a resolution to provide funds for public art at each its nine college campuses and satellite facilities.

The resolution sets aside approximately $30 million for public art supplied by the Los Angeles arts community. The funds come from one half of 1 percent of the district’s $6 billion sustainable building program created through three bond measures, passed in 2001, ’03 and ’08.

Georgia Mercer, an LACCD Board of Trustees member, says she hopes the resolution, which was partially modeled after the city’s commitment of 1 percent of its budget to public art, will send a message to the arts community and the community at large.

“My greatest hope is that with all the budget cuts and all the negativity that’s going on, this is a positive way to engage the community and campus in the future,” Mercer says.

The artwork should have “unquantifiable educational benefits” on the college community as well, Mercer says.

Larry Eisenburg, executive director of facilities planning and development, says the district will establish a committee to recommend art for each college. Art pieces that are chosen will be installed in popular public spaces, building lobbies and important open-space areas.

“Our colleges have very little public art involvement, and this is an opportunity to make a significant improvement,” Eisenburg says.

He says the artwork should spur dialogue and thought for people who visit the college campuses.

“It’s the basic nature of public art — the idea that public art makes people think, whether they like it or they hate it,” Eisenburg says. “Everybody has a reaction to it, and that reaction is what we want. When people see something foreign to them, it helps them change their whole thought process.”

Of the 90 new buildings planned through the sustainable building program, 10 have been completed and another 29 are under construction. All of the buildings are LEED-certified, and many incorporate wind, solar and geothermal energy systems. Several of the buildings are designed to produce all of their energy needs on site.

In addition to the public art resolution, architects working under the sustainable building program are encouraged to incorporate artistic features, such as murals or tile mosaics, into their building designs.