Percent for the Arts in New Britain

From May of 2009:
I was very interested in two recent newspaper articles reporting the unveiling of a new sculpture at New Britain High School under the city's Percent for the Arts program.  As the Hartford Courant reported,

An 18-foot aluminum statue that is the city's first effort in a program that funds public art has been installed at New Britain High School. The statue was erected on Wednesday in front of the school's main entrance.

This article goes on to say,

The project ... is funded through the city's Percent for Art, in which one percent of the funds for certain public construction projects is set aside for a public art project.

This got my attention because I wrote New Britain's Percent for the Arts ordinance when I was on the City Council, before I was elected to the state legislature.  That ordinance also created the city Commission on the Arts.  I worked with Barbara Scully, who was a Republican Council member, in the creation of this ordinance.  The Arts Commission was Ald. Scully's idea and the 1% for the Arts was an idea I proposed, based on a similar state policy.  We merged our ideas and worked together to win its approval.

I believed then and now that public art adds to the quality of life of a community.  As New Britain artist Craig Frederick said in the New Britain Herald article,

“Public art opens eyes, minds and hearts to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination,”

I believe that public art is important because it is shared and accessible to everyone.  It makes public spaces we all share more enjoyable places to be, and it inspires the imagination and creativity.

And so, in that spirit, I cannot think of a better place for this ordinance to have created public art than where students can enjoy it every school day at New Britain High School.