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Buffalo Arts Commission chair urges council to fill vacancies, create public-art master plan
Summary
At a Committee on Community Development meeting in February 2025, Buffalo Arts Commission Chair Catherine Gillespie urged filling three council-appointed vacancies and developing a citywide public-art master plan, citing the charterrequirement that 1% of capital project budgets support public art and recent high conservation costs.
Catherine Gillespie, chair of the Buffalo Arts Commission, told the Committee on Community Development on Tuesday that the council should fill three vacant commission seats and work with the commission to create a master plan for public art.
"I have the honor of serving as the chair of the Buffalo Arts Commission since 02/2009," Gillespie said in council chambers, adding that the commission wants to improve communication with the council and produce an "accurate, informative inventory" of city-owned art for the public.
Gillespie framed the request around the commission's stewardship role and the city's funding rule for public art. She said the city charter directs that "1% of capital bonds each year will be designated to public art," and that conservation work can be expensive: the McKinley Monument conservation cost $750,000, which Gillespie said represented three years of the commission's conservation budget.
The commission has five new mayoral appointees, Gillespie said, and the council currently has "3 out of your 5 positions vacant." She named the new appointees as Alan Gershwin, Jonathan White, Virginia Bachelor, Patrick Carer and Shasti O'Leary Sadant and asked the council to consider nominees for the remaining vacancies.
Gillespie described ongoing and recent projects the commission oversees, including a conservation contract for the "Young Lincoln" in Delaware Park, a new Allen Street installation titled "Emergence" by Mark Griffiths, the doors at Meriwether Library and a sculpture at Crane Library. She said 14 art-in-public-places projects were active at the time of her remarks and that the commission contracts with professional conservators for outdoor works and portrait conservation inside City Hall.
Council members who spoke during the item welcomed more regular engagement with the commission. "A master plan for the entire city sounds great," Council Member Boldman said, adding that earlier involvement by the commission in large projects would help with funding and planning. Council Member Halton Pope said the council should do a "better job" of having regular discussions about projects that trigger the 1% art requirement.
Committee procedure on the item included a motion to open the appointment discussion, a motion to close discussion, and a motion "to approve items 1 through and including 5." The transcript records a second for the approval motion but does not record a roll-call tally or an explicit recorded outcome on the motion in the excerpt provided.
The commission asked for improved communication with the council, a publicly accessible inventory of city art, and participation in arts and cultural funding decisions. Gillespie also signaled willingness to supply names for the council's remaining vacancies and proposed regular presentations to the council.
No statutory citations beyond Gillespie's references to the city charter were offered in the committee discussion excerpt provided. The transcript excerpt did not record any formal direction to staff or a committee vote count within the posted segments.
