LIC getting ugly pink sculpture

From LIC Post:

A large, pink sculpture that sparked considerable debate last year has been approved for installation on Jackson Avenue.

“Sunbather” by artist Ohad Meromi received final design approval from the Public Design Commission at an Oct. 26 meeting, according to the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA). It will be built at Jackson Avenue/43rd Avenue before the end of next year.

Comprehensive cultural plan to be formulated

From the NY Times:

New York City is looking to join Chicago, Houston, Denver and other major cities by passing legislation to create its first comprehensive cultural plan.

The legislation, which the City Council passed by a vote of 49 to 0 on Tuesday, requires the city to analyze its current cultural priorities, assess how service to different neighborhoods can be improved, study the condition of arts organizations and artists, and plan how the city can remain artist-friendly in a time of high rents and other economic pressures.

The bill was introduced by the council members Stephen Levin (Brooklyn) and Jimmy Van Bramer (Queens).

“Administrations come and go; cultural affairs commissioners come and go,” said Mr. Van Bramer, who is chairman of the council’s cultural affairs committee and majority leader. “What we want is to have this ongoing prioritization of arts and culture.”

Tom Finkelpearl, the city’s cultural affairs commissioner, said he fully supported the plan. “We went back and forth and back and forth on improving the bill and I have completely come around to the idea that it’s going to be great for New York,” he said.

“Even though I spend all my time out looking at everything in all the boroughs, it still only adds up to an anecdotal idea of what’s happening,” he continued. “Are there parts of the city that are not adequately served by cultural resources or are there imaginative ideas for getting cultural resources to those communities?”

The plan requires the city to find out what arts groups in the five boroughs want and need and to incorporate these recommendations in a plan to be submitted by July 1, 2017.

Queens cultural institutions getting less funding

From the Queens Chronicle:

Queens ranks last in per capita support from the Department of Cultural Affairs with just $3.27 spent per resident, according to a presentation by Katz’s staff at Monday’s meeting of the Borough Board, despite eight of 35 cultural institutions owned by the city located in Queens.

“Focus on that for a second,” Katz said. “I just want everyone to understand that it’s bad and it’s unfair. We are the number one destination of choice in 2015 and yet we spend $3 per person on our culture.”

Of the eight cultural institutions in Queens — the Queens Botanical Garden, the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Museum, Queens Theatre in the Park, the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, the Museum of the Moving Image, PS1 and Flushing Town Hall — the New York Hall of Science is provided the most city funding, $1,847,093, in the new budget, $18,696 more than last year.

However, six other institutions saw a decrease in funding in this year’s budget proposal, with PS1’s allocation remaining steady at $774,496.

The biggest proposed cutback is a $109,000 reduction in the Queens Museum’s city funding, which would decline from $921,135 to $812,135 this year.

Katz said colleagues such as Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer don’t have to make up for shortcomings in city cultural funding with monies from their own budget, and that she plans to negotiate as hard as she can for equality.

Weird statue to be placed somewhere in LIC

From LIC Post:

The Department of Cultural Affairs is close to erecting a bright pink, 8 ½ feet tall sculpture on Jackson Avenue.

The artwork would be located there permanently and the cost to taxpayers would be about $450,000. Furthermore, the owners of the adjacent sites have not been notified — which is typical for this type of a artwork since it is part of city program.

The Department of Cultural Affairs through its ‘Percent for Art’ initiative has selected an artist to create the piece and it is a long way in the process of getting it approved. The artwork is called “The Sunbather” which is likely to be placed on the grass median by the crosswalk near 43rd Avenue.

Public inclusion in the process has been limited—with the organization electing not to share the rendering with the greater public or with this news site. It also won’t put the rendering up online until it is approved.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And in this beholder's opinion, it looks like a bunch of wadded up bubblegum.

Queens Museum director appointed commissioner of Cultural Affairs

From the NY Times:

Tom Finkelpearl, the president and executive director of the Queens Museum, is scheduled to be named the cultural affairs commissioner by Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday, the mayor’s office confirmed, putting Mr. Finkelpearl in charge of a $156 million budget and making him the point person on the arts for a city widely considered the cultural capital of the world.

The appointment is in keeping with the new administration’s emphasis on the disenfranchised; in his 12 years at the Queens Museum, Mr. Finkelpearl, 58, has hired community organizers to professionalize outreach efforts and emphasized the diversity of the local immigrant population. (He frequently cites the 138 languages spoken in the borough.)

And his institution’s recently completed $68 million renovation was largely aimed at making the museum more inviting and connected to the neighborhood.

“Tom believes that art is for everybody, and has developed an exceptional record of fortifying the city’s cultural institutions across all five boroughs,” Mr. de Blasio said. “That’s exactly the kind of energy, leadership and creativity that we want.”

The appointment, to be formally announced on Monday at the Queens Museum, begins to shed some light on Mr. de Blasio’s plan for the arts. He succeeds a mayor who was heavily involved in cultural affairs, Michael R. Bloomberg, and who used his own wealth to advance the mission of many arts organizations. Mr. de Blasio’s profile on culture has been something of a mystery.