Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 01/09/2025

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"integrates artworks and the ideas of artists into a variety of public settings, advancing Seattle's reputation as a cultural center for innovation and creativity." (Palmer 2012, P. 63) Many other states, counties, cities and agencies followed with percent for arts programs that continue to this day. The 1960's were a period of dramatic social change. To address societal challenges, a number of federal programs were developed under President Johnson's Great Society movement. In 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities (now the National Endowment for the Arts,NEA) was created as an independent agency of the Federal government, and was intended to develop a further alliance between the arts, humanistic studies and American education(Wetenhall 1992). The NEA's Art-in-Public Places program was established in 1967, and provided matching grants to civic groups and university communities for the commissioning of art for public sites (Senie and Webster 1992, p. xiv). This program sought to increase exposure to public art, while giving communities self-determination in determining how their public space was defined. The approach of the NEA was intended to foster the arts and to make them available and appreciated without imposing aesthetic standards or directing artistic contents (National Endowment for the Arts, 1995). Public art in the 1960s was an important part of urban renewal and revitalization efforts. Public art was one of the tools used to make cities more livable and to counteract the impression that urban centers had become ugly and unsafe. The Model Cities Act of 1966 promoted comprehensive planning and place-making efforts. The Act encouraged communities to create attractive public spaces as part of redevelopment efforts and many of these spaces became locations for public art. However, many of the early commissions under this program were criticized for being divorced from site context as well as the specific community interests. 48