Slimming for the Beach

Report to Arts, Cul­ture, Leisure & Youth Affairs SPC
23rd Sep­tem­ber, 2009
Item No. 5

Draft Pol­icy for Decom­mis­sion­ing of Pub­lic Art

This draft pol­icy doc­u­ment for the Decom­mis­sion­ing of Pub­lic Art fol­lows the pass­ing by the SPC for Arts, Cul­ture, Leisure and Youth Affairs and The City Coun­cil (in March 2009) of the Poli­cies and Strate­gies for Man­ag­ing Pub­lic Art. The Pol­icy doc­u­ment fol­lows inter­na­tional best prac­tice as oper­ated in UK, USA and New Zealand in particular.

The doc­u­ment sets out pro­ce­dures and poli­cies for the man­age­ment of the City Council’s col­lec­tion of per­ma­nent art and where issues arise relat­ing to con­di­tion or loca­tion of art­works and their impact on the city. The col­lec­tion includes works in the City Coun­cil Col­lec­tion but not works in the Dublin City Gallery – The Hugh Lane Col­lec­tion. The City Coun­cil Col­lec­tion includes art­works donated or on loan to the City as well as ‘per­ma­nent’ work com­mis­sioned by the City Coun­cil (includ­ing those under the Per Cent for Art Scheme) on dis­play exter­nally or internally.

The Pol­icy Paper deals with issues relat­ing to decom­mis­sion­ing art­works includ­ing; relo­ca­tion, stor­age and full deac­ces­sion (i.e. remov­ing a work from the City Council’s Col­lec­tion). Rea­sons for such pro­pos­als include: the recon­fig­u­ra­tion of pub­lic space; the con­di­tion of an art­work; that the con­text or rel­e­vance to a site has changed or com­plaints regard­ing the impact that a work is hav­ing on a community.

Ruairí Ó Cuív
Pub­lic Art Manager

DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL DRAFT POLICY

FOR DECOMMISSIONING PUBLIC ART

CONTENTS

1. Intro­duc­tion 3

2. Prin­ci­ples 3

3. Decom­mis­sion­ing Options 3
3.1 Relo­ca­tion 3
3.2Storage 4
3.3Deaccession 4

4. Cri­te­ria 4

5.Procedure 5

6. Assess­ment 5
6.1Initial Assess­ment 5
6.2Further Assess­ment 6
6.3Public Art Advi­sory Group 6
6.4Strategic Pol­icy Com­mit­tee 6
6.5Final deci­sion 6

7. Records and Doc­u­men­ta­tion 6

8. Future Con­tracts 6

9. Acknowl­edge­ments 7
9.1 Other Research 7

1.Introduction

Dublin City Coun­cil has many pub­lic art­works in its care. These range from pro­tected struc­tures and works of great his­tor­i­cal and artis­tic impor­tance to works of art com­mis­sioned in recent decades.

Occa­sion­ally issues arise regard­ing the con­di­tion or loca­tion of art­works and their impact on the city, its com­mu­ni­ties and vis­i­tors which involve pro­pos­als to move or remove art­works. Rea­sons for such pro­pos­als include: the recon­fig­u­ra­tion of pub­lic space; the con­di­tion of an art­work; that the con­text or rel­e­vance to a site has changed or com­plaints regard­ing the impact that a work is hav­ing on a community.

This pol­icy paper deals with issues relat­ing to decom­mis­sion­ing art­works includ­ing; relo­ca­tion, stor­age and full deac­ces­sion (i.e. remov­ing a work from the City Council’s Col­lec­tion). It includes pub­lic art­works in the City Coun­cil Col­lec­tion but not works in the Dublin City Gallery – The Hugh Lane Col­lec­tion or his­toric art­works which belong to the City Archives. The City Coun­cil Col­lec­tion includes art­works donated or on loan to the City as well as ‘per­ma­nent’ work com­mis­sioned by the City Coun­cil (includ­ing those under the Per Cent for Art Scheme) on dis­play exter­nally or internally.

2. Prin­ci­ples

Decom­mis­sion­ing an art­work or mon­u­ment will not be decided upon on grounds of his­toric mean­ing or artis­tic merit alone. Cities are built on lay­ers of his­tory and part of their impor­tance and mean­ing stems from this. While polit­i­cal, social or artis­tic view­points can change it is not the role of Dublin City Coun­cil to arbi­trate in ret­ro­spect on their mer­its, espe­cially in view of the fact that polit­i­cal and artis­tic trends con­tin­u­ously change.

The decom­mis­sion­ing of an art­work should only take place after a con­sid­ered process which includes assess­ment against the stated cri­te­ria (Sec­tion 4) and by fol­low­ing agreed pro­ce­dures (Sec­tion 5). The process will be gov­erned by respect for artists and com­mu­ni­ties in which the art­work is located.

3.Decommissioning Options

3.1 Relo­ca­tion

“To remove the work is to destroy it” – Richard Sera, Amer­i­can artist, made this state­ment to a pub­lic enquiry in 1985, when it was pro­posed to move his art­work Tilted Arc from Fed­eral Plaza, New York to another location.

The issue of site speci­ficity is of great impor­tance to many artists and they should be con­sulted regard­ing pro­pos­als to relo­cate a work. The con­text be it phys­i­cal, spa­tial, his­toric, social or oth­er­wise is often a fac­tor in the com­mis­sion­ing, artis­tic con­cept and place­ment of art­works. There­fore, con­sid­er­a­tion has to be given regard­ing the impact on the appear­ance or mean­ing of the art­work in any pro­posal to relo­cate a work. In cer­tain cases the relo­ca­tion of an art­work can enhance its appear­ance and relevance.

The option of lend­ing a work can also be considered.

3.2 Stor­age

There are times when there is need to remove works to stor­age. These can include infra­struc­ture works tak­ing place in the vicin­ity of the art­work, removal because of dam­age or as an interim stage to the relo­ca­tion of a work. The stor­age of a work should only be con­sid­ered as an interim measure.

Stor­age con­di­tions should be such that the work is pro­tected. This will include proper cli­mate con­di­tions (i.e. that the work is not vul­ner­a­ble to con­di­tions which will cause dete­ri­o­ra­tion), pro­tec­tion from theft, van­dal­ism or acci­den­tal dam­age. The actual place­ment in stor­age and fur­ther removal of works (or part of works) from stor­age may only take place in con­sul­ta­tion with the Pub­lic Art Man­ager and should be super­vised by appro­pri­ate expertise.

The sta­tus of pub­lic art­works in stor­age for more than five years will be reviewed.

3.3 Deac­ces­sion

Deac­ces­sion involves remov­ing a work from the City Council’s Col­lec­tion. This can include the return to the artist, donor or lender or the destruc­tion of the work. The per­ma­nent removal and destruc­tion of an art­work should only take place as a last resort. A full process of assess­ment and con­sul­ta­tion will have taken place before such action is undertaken.

4. Cri­te­ria

Cri­te­ria for the ini­ti­a­tion of a review for the removal, relo­ca­tion or deac­ces­sion of art­works include:
5.That the art­work is con­sid­ered beyond repair or that main­te­nance and con­ser­va­tion work will under­mine the integrity of the art­work or that the cost of such work is con­sid­ered exces­sive.
6.That the art­work has seri­ous or dan­ger­ous faults in design or work­man­ship that cause it to be a dan­ger to pub­lic health and safety.
7.That the cur­rent loca­tion of the art­work is no longer suit­able or avail­able, that another site com­pro­mises the integrity of the art­work or requires incur­ring exces­sive expense or that another site is unavail­able.
8.That the terms of acqui­si­tion can no longer be met.
9.That the loan agree­ment with the own­ers of the art­work has expired or that the City Coun­cil is no longer able to meet the con­di­tions of the loan agree­ment.
10.That both the City Coun­cil and the artist agree to have the art­work decom­mis­sioned.
11.That the City Coun­cil has regard to clauses in con­tracts which allow for the decom­mis­sion­ing of an art­work after a defined period of time or that plan­ning per­mis­sion has been awarded sub­ject to review after a defined period of time.
12.That the art­work has been unso­licited.
13.That the pub­lic art­work has been lost or stolen and for­mal removal from the Pub­lic Art Reg­is­ter is required.
5.Procedure

Pro­pos­als to relo­cate or decom­mis­sion an art­work may be made by artists, donors, lenders, city coun­cil­lors, city offi­cials or mem­bers of the pub­lic
Pro­pos­als to relo­cate or decom­mis­sion an art­work will be made on the offi­cial form, set­ting out which cri­te­ria are met and why the work should be relo­cated or decom­mis­sioned.
All pro­pos­als will be made to the Pub­lic Art Man­ager who will present them to the Pub­lic Art Advi­sory Group for con­sid­er­a­tion.
The Pub­lic Art Man­ager will under­take an ini­tial assess­ment of the pro­posal to relo­cate, store or fully decom­mis­sion the work.
A fur­ther assess­ment will take place if in the opin­ion of the Pub­lic Art Man­ager there are grounds for relo­ca­tion or decom­mis­sion­ing.
The appli­ca­tion will be dis­missed if in the opin­ion of the Pub­lic Art Advi­sory Group the pro­posal to relo­cate, store or decom­mis­sion does not meet with any of the decom­mis­sion­ing cri­te­ria.
Rel­e­vant City Coun­cil offi­cials will be con­sulted (includ­ing where rel­e­vant the arts offi­cer, plan­ning, her­itage, con­ser­va­tion, legal, etc).
Inde­pen­dent exper­tise (e.g. con­ser­va­tion, val­u­a­tion, pub­lic art, plan­ning, legal, etc) will be con­sulted for works val­ued at more than €20,000.
Every rea­son­able effort will be made to con­sult with the artist, donor or lender or the legally recog­nised representative(s) of these par­ties.
Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of local com­mu­ni­ties will be noti­fied and / or con­sulted.
The final deci­sion to relo­cate, store or decom­mis­sion rests with Dublin City Coun­cil.
The Press Office will be informed of pro­pos­als to relo­cate or decom­mis­sion an art­work.
The review process and action taken will be fully doc­u­mented and filed in the City Coun­cil.
Dublin City Coun­cil reserves the right to take imme­di­ate and appro­pri­ate action to pro­tect pub­lic health and safety if the art­work is con­sid­ered to be a cause of immi­nent dan­ger. In this case, the work may only be removed to storage.

6. Assess­ment

6.1Initial Assess­ment

The Pub­lic Art Man­ager, in con­sul­ta­tion with other exper­tise if required, will under­take an ini­tial assess­ment. This ini­tial assess­ment will include:
Assess­ment of how the appli­ca­tion matches the decom­mis­sion­ing cri­te­ria.
Whether the art­work is on the Reg­is­ter of Pro­tected Struc­tures.
Review con­tracts or other legal agree­ments with artists, donors or lenders relat­ing to the art­work.
Doc­u­ment the art­work (both visual record and con­di­tion report).
Exam­ine the con­text of the com­mis­sion includ­ing artists’ state­ments.
Assess­ment and rec­om­men­da­tion / pro­posed action.

6.2 Fur­ther Assessment

In the case where the Pub­lic Art Man­ager con­sid­ers that the appli­ca­tion meets one or more of the cri­te­ria, he will under­take a fur­ther assess­ment. A report will be pre­pared which pro­vides the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion:
Con­sul­ta­tions and analy­sis.
Legal issues and oblig­a­tions.
Val­u­a­tion of the art­work.
Esti­mate of the fea­si­bil­ity and costs of con­ser­va­tion, relo­ca­tion, stor­age or deac­ces­sion.
Recommendation.

6.3 Pub­lic Art Advi­sory Group

The Pub­lic Art Advi­sory Group will con­sider all appli­ca­tions to have an art­work relo­cated, stored or deac­ces­sioned and will make a rec­om­men­da­tion.
It can make a rec­om­men­da­tion based on the infor­ma­tion pro­vided by the Pub­lic Art Man­ager or in cer­tain cases request that fur­ther assess­ment be under­taken.
The Pub­lic Art Advi­sory Group can request the atten­dance of the artist, lender, donor or other rel­e­vant experts.
All rel­e­vant par­ties (includ­ing the appli­cant, artist, donor or lender) will be informed of the deci­sion.
In the case of deac­ces­sion, an offi­cial order will be signed before decom­mis­sion­ing takes place.

6.4 Strate­gic Pol­icy Committee

All pro­pos­als for the decom­mis­sion­ing of pub­lic art­works will be pre­sented to the Arts, Cul­ture, Leisure and Youth Affairs Strate­gic Pol­icy Com­mit­tee for decision.

6.Records and Documentation

The Pub­lic Art Reg­is­ter will be updated to reflect the sta­tus / loca­tion of the work.
The art­work and the decom­mis­sion­ing process will be fully doc­u­mented and filed in the City Council.

7. Future Contracts

All future con­tracts com­mis­sion­ing ‘per­ma­nent’ pub­lic art will have a clause relat­ing to the decom­mis­sion­ing of art­works. Issues to be included in con­tracts are life expectancy, review peri­ods and main­te­nance agreements.

8. Acknowl­edge­ments
This doc­u­ment was greatly informed by cri­te­ria and pro­ce­dures in place for the Pub­lic Art Scheme in Auck­land City Coun­cil, New Zealand.
www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/documents/artresiting/contents.asp

9.1 Other research

- Visual Artists Ire­land, Info Pool, Ire­land, www.visualartists.ie/sfr_infopool
– Pub­lic Arton­line Resources, UK www.publicartonline.org.uk
Pub­lic Art by the Book, City of Seat­tle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cul­tural Affairs, 2005
Mak­ing Shapes, Pub­lic Art in Done­gal 2006–2010. Done­gal County Coun­cil
– Place and Iden­tity, Dún Laoghaire Rath­down, Pub­lic Art Pro­gramme
– Pub­lic Art Pol­icy, North­ern Ter­ri­tory Gov­ern­ment, Aus­tralia
– Swindon’s Pub­lic Art Scheme, UK