Gee, and we can’t find any money for the roads, and they give the guy in charge who already makes over $300,000 a year a bonus. Huh? I have said the state should spend the money it has and not let it collect mold in a bank account.
This is a new website headed up by Theresa Stehly. I am one of the contributors. Here is my latest article:
Private / Public Arts Funding Partnerships;
Can we have our cake and eat it too?
By Scott L. Ehrisman
I am not only an artist, but I am also an arts advocate and patron, especially when it comes to local music and visual art. I take public arts funding very seriously. I have often questioned the legitimacy of public arts funding in Sioux Falls though. On one hand publicly funding arts can have a positive impact on a community by promoting and fostering culture but it also can have a negative effect when the public is left out of that promotion process.
Before a public arts project goes forth a challenging question must be asked; is this project going to culturally enrich everyone in the community? Equality is tantamount when public funds are being spent.
There has been this capitalistic battle with the arts for centuries. Some artists and arts projects are only considered successful if they have an economic impact on a community. Sioux Falls SculptureWalk is a good example of this. Is its purpose to enrich us culturally or is it to promote downtown tourism and business, or both? The same could be said about the Sioux Empire Arts Council, First Fridays and the Washington Pavilion. All organizations receive private and public funding. Do you have to attach profitability to an arts project to see if it has an impact on the community? Is its cultural impact immeasurable?
This is a hard one to answer because the Sioux Falls public has long been blocked out of the decision making process when it comes to public arts projects and organizations. This is due to the complicated private/public funding partnership and bureaucratic city hall.
Many of these organizations set themselves up as a special non-profit organization that keeps them immune from public input, and sometimes even public criticism. This is unfortunate, because dissent is the cornerstone of a free society, and if they are using our tax dollars, even partially, to fund public art I believe we have a right to have input on that project. Even the all volunteer Visual
Arts Commission is questionable because its members are appointed by one person, the mayor, which often makes the appointments more political then practical.
Too often public arts in this community reflect the tastes of a select few who are fortunate enough to sit on the boards of these organizations. So the public has to unwillingly accept what is presented to them even though we paid for it.
Do we continue to allow these partnerships in Sioux Falls where the public is left out of the process? Or do we demand they be privately funded if they cannot comply to a fair and democratic process?
Can we have it both ways in Sioux Falls? I think we can. A partnership has its benefits, especially when it comes to purchasing power. Not to mention board members usually come from the successful business sector of the community, they can and have raised money successfully for these groups. While they may have expertise in the financial mechanics of these projects, they rarely have their pulse on the community’s tastes in culture. Or maybe they do and just ignore them. Â How do we remedy this flaw in the process?
It’s simple, let the private sector be responsible for the fund-raising and the business nuts and bolts of the operation, let the public be a part of the commission, judging and selection process. In the end we will all be an integral part of the process. Does that make sense in a democracy? Oh wait.
After the council meeting last night I had the opportunity to look at a Koch Hazard’s newsletter. The NL is not available online unless you subscribe to it. But in it was Koch Hazard’s plan for DT. The $750,000 bridge was on the drawing. It is a fancy-smancy suspension bridge. Also what is interesting about the drawing is that the Tower of David and the other low-income apartments are missing (I am assuming that they want to tear them down in the name of progress) An event center also appears in the drawing. I encourage anyone who can get their hands on an electronic version of the NL to send it to me, I would love to post the ‘proposed’ development for DT. Funny how a private architect firm is creating there plans for DT, I guess citizens input doesn’t mean two shits, oh that’s right, you have 5 minutes for input only.
Although neither I nor my family attended or watched tonight’s city council meeting (why would we when we follow our leaders, unlike certain other ornery kind), my Next-door Neighbor Nugent watched part of tonight’s city council meeting on city channel 16 (our proud tax-payer owned station that feeds us what we want to hear) and leaned over across the fence in our backyard and told us that what he saw tonight was a fancy-pantsed, no-good liberal hippy (wearing artsy-fartsy headgear, no less) talking WAyyyyyyyyy past the 5-minute century-old, for-the-good-of-the-city, citizen “blow off steam-yak” rule. If he can’t communicate his unpatriotic whines to the council in a period of 5 minutes, then he is not entitled to speak up about anything – period.  We don’t live in France, for Pete’s sake!!! And for this person to be so totally disrespectful to the mayor and the city council members by taking so much of THEIR time at this very important meeting…well, it is just a dirty-rotten shame. He should rot in Hell for it. My Aunt Bertha about let out her famous ear-wrenching Mid-West “BULLROAR” yelp that would have shook the bike-trail ground that righteous hippy rode his bike in on. Well, it is a good thing that Next-door Neighbor Nugent intervened, calmed down my Aunt Bertha (since Uncle Rusty can’t do much as he was inside wasting his time watching stupid TV channel CNN news – shhhheeeeesh!), and then showed us this old photo (below) of him choking a chicken a few years back when he was angry at another citizen who pushed the city too far (when someone accused our beloved former council member, Harry Wingdinger, of sexual exploration when he was only trying to research the city’s youth culture to find out if they prefer indoor or outdoor swimming pools). Next-door Neighbor Nugent told then told us that if a copper don’t take away that hippy and fricassee his heinie the next time he goes over the allotted 5-minutes at a future meeting, then my Next-door Neighbor Nugent might ask his favorite council member “Big Homeboy Bob” to assist him with passing a city ordinance whereas chicken-choking would be legalized once again in this fair city of ours.
Anyway, here is the link to tonight’s attempt one hippy’s attempt at an unpatriotic revolution if you want to watch it.  http://siouxfalls.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=651
Sincerly,
EggBert T.
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l3wis 
EggBert