[MSN] The mystery of Miami's missing art remains unsolved, but help is on the way for the rest of the collection. Dade shares new vision for troubled art program

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-----Original Message-----
From: msn-list-bounces at te.verweg.com
[mailto:msn-list-bounces at te.verweg.com] On Behalf Of Museum Security
Network Mailing list
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 3:34 AM
To: list at museum-security.org
Subject: [MSN] The mystery of Miami's missing art remains unsolved, but
help is on the way for the rest of the collection. Dade shares new
vision for troubled art program



Dade shares new vision for troubled art program
BY DANIEL CHANG
The mystery of Miami's missing art remains unsolved, but help is on the
way for the rest of the collection.

Beset by missing works and poor maintenance, Miami-Dade County's Art in
Public Places program will be reorganized this year to better care for
the art and to step up enforcement of public-funding requirements,
according to a county progress report.

Among the changes that county leaders have proposed are setting aside as
much as 15 percent of the program's annual budget to care for existing
works and creating new safeguards and policies for tracking and
maintaining the more than 700 pieces in the collection, which cost $34
million to amass.

''We have to rethink the way in which we're administering the entire
public-art program,'' said Michael Spring, the county's cultural affairs
director and author of the progress report.

While the program has a strong record of commissioning significant works
of public art over the past three decades, such as Claes Oldenburg's
sculpture Dropped Bowl with Scattered Slices and Peels outside County
Hall, Spring said the county must become a better steward of those
works.

''We have to treat this almost as a communitywide museum with a
collection that needs to be accounted for, cared for and publicized,''
he said.

Spring's report follows a September investigation by The Miami Herald
that revealed that the county's 34-year-old Art in Public Places program
had lost track of dozens of artworks, allowed others to deteriorate in
storage, and relied on an inconsistent and incomplete inventory in
tracking the collection.

Since its inception in 1973, the program has built one of the largest
and richest art collections in Florida. Funded by a levy of 1.5 percent
of public-construction budgets, it commissions or purchases works of art
to adorn courthouses, libraries, transit stations, the airport and the
seaport.

But the collection, praised by many as among the finest in the field, is
in disarray:

* Dozens of artworks have been lost or stolen.

* Signature works by seminal artists have deteriorated, with no money
and no plans to restore them, while others sit in storage, belying the
notion of art in public places.

* At least 20 works that together cost more than $800,000 have been
dropped from the collection inventory because they are either damaged or
missing.

* Program administrators still rely on an inconsistent, incomplete
inventory in monitoring the collection.

Spring credited The Miami Herald's investigation of Art in Public Places
with helping to bring about change.

''It helped refocus county government on the fact the program needs to
be reoriented,'' he said. ``It needs to begin to treat its collection as
a core responsibility.''

NEW LEADERSHIP

Spring took over the program in October, after Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos
Alvarez's budget cut three of the program's six staff members, including
past director Ivan Rodriguez.

Since then, Spring said, he has set about studying ''best practices''
among public-art programs, developing written policies for the removal
of artworks from the collection, and analyzing the program's funding.

Cindi Nash, chair of the independent Public Art Trust, which approves
artwork and expenditures, said the proposed changes would make it
``easier for everybody to see what's there. And we'll have better
control over everything.''

But Nash believes that the program cannot succeed without better
funding. ''The problem has always been the money,'' she said.

Spring said he will not ask the county for more money until after the
public-art collection has been appraised and its needs assessed.

Among the first orders of business for improving the program, Spring
said, will be buying new computer software to keep a reliable inventory
and hiring a consultant to appraise the collection.

Spring said he will wait for a county audit of the program to be
completed before investigating missing works, although he has already
directed the staff to inquire about missing art with county department
directors.

Depending on results of the much-delayed audit, now promised by next
month, the county may hire a private investigation firm to look for
missing art, Spring said. Commissioner Sally Heyman has already
recommended a firm that would work pro bono to recover works.

Heyman, who requested an audit of the county's public-art program last
April, said she is encouraged by the proposed changes, although she is
growing impatient for the finished audit.

''Under the old regime, I was frustrated,'' she said, ``and I am still
waiting for the promised-in-September, guaranteed-in-October,
weonly-need-a-signature-fromthe-manager-in-November, and here it is
January and I have not seen the audit.''

Heyman said her request for an audit of the program was motivated by a
lack of accountability under the past director, Ivan Rodriguez.

''To have resistance on accountability, auditing, questions asked . . .
that not only sent a red flag up to me, my colleagues supported it and
two different committees did, too,'' she said.

Rodriguez could not be reached for comment. Vivian Donnell-Rodriguez,
his wife and predecessor as public-art director, did not return a call
for comment.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Spring will have to accomplish his planned changes with half the staff
and a potentially smaller budget. Because Art in Public Places is funded
by public building projects, its budget changes each year, depending on
new construction.

The program received $5 million in 2006 and was projected to receive
$1.5 million in 2007. Spring said he is still calculating the budget for
the coming year, but he plans to set aside 15 percent for maintenance.

An unknown number of past public building projects still owe money to
the art program. Spring said his staff is still reconciling project
budgets and has not yet identified precisely how much money is owed to
the public-art program and by whom.

''By and large, the vast majority of county capital projects complied
with the ordinance, but there were a small percentage that did not,'' he
said. ``I think that's because there wasn't a systematic way for
departments to be notified of the requirement.''

However, Spring said, he has devised a system to ensure that all
building projects eligible for the public-art requirement pay into the
program. More than being an enforcer of public-art funding, though, he
said he wants to change the way other county departments view the
ordinance, by telling them:

``This isn't just a requirement. This is an opportunity to make your
buildings great with public art.''

http://www.miamiherald.com


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