Mercer Island Arts Council backs six-year public-art work plan and updated program guidelines

The Mercer Island Arts Council voted unanimously March 19 to recommend that the city council adopt an updated six-year Art in Public Places work plan, an updated prioritized project opportunities list and revised guidelines for administering the city’s public-art program.

The recommendation follows a presentation by Sarah Blavas, capital-improvement-project (CIP) project manager, who told the Arts Council the draft plan consolidates three documents into a single public-art program guide and includes edits from earlier meetings. "We are back tonight to discuss the 6 year art in public places work plan," Blavas said, noting staff moved 1% fund tracking to an appendix and added a table of contents and other clarifying edits.

The work-plan documents are intended to guide the Arts Council and city staff in identifying and prioritizing public-art projects over the next six years. Blavas told the council the plan includes an updated project opportunities list ranked by a November prioritization exercise; four projects were identified as the initial priorities for implementation. She said the 1% public-art balance shown in the draft is current as of Jan. 1, 2025, but does not include contributions through the end of 2024; those amounts will be added after year-end reporting by the finance department, typically completed in April.

Council members discussed the project opportunities list and asked staff to retain lower-ranked ideas on the running list so future Arts Councils can reevaluate them. New Arts Council member Katie Kratzer suggested evaluating projects for cost relative to visibility — for example, utility-box wraps or banners that may be low cost but high visibility. Blavas said staff did not perform a financial cost-benefit analysis on each idea for this draft but said such an analysis could be added in a future iteration.

The council debated how to label mid- and lower-ranked items and discussed whether to combine medium and low categories. Members agreed the list is a snapshot in time and asked staff to consider simpler categories (for example, "priority" versus "unranked") in a future draft. The Arts Council also approved adding a new item, described as "Town Center Art Elements" — a project to explore integrating public art into functional elements such as utility boxes or banners — and clarified that the project would be exploratory and would not change Town Center sign code.

Blavas also summarized edits to the draft guidelines: clarifying procedures for evaluating artist submissions and artwork selection; removing the phrase "general resident" from the selection-panel language; adding project-specific milestones to evaluation criteria; and adding language that staff should seek community input before forwarding deaccession recommendations to the Arts Council.

After discussion, Councilor Scone moved and Councilor Harrington seconded a motion "to recommend that the 6 year work plan for art in public places be adopted by the city council." The roll-call vote was recorded as unanimous approval. Blavas said staff will make minor, non-substantive edits and return the finalized documents to the City Council for formal adoption.

Votes at a glance: Approval to recommend adoption of the six-year Art in Public Places work plan, prioritized project opportunities list and updated guidelines — motion by Councilor Scone, second by Councilor Harrington; outcome: approved (unanimous). Approval of minutes and excuse of the chair’s absence were handled separately (see below).

The Arts Council approved the recommendation and moved to other business; staff will finalize the plan documents and transmit them to the City Council for formal adoption. The council also scheduled a follow-up special meeting on April 30 to review any final drafts and related materials if needed.