Commission approves bronze conservation and staff training after condition survey

The Public Art Advisory Committee voted to move forward with conservation work on bronze sculptures and to use a portion of the FY26 budget to fund the work and staff training. Kilberg Riley, the city’s economic development and public art coordinator, summarized recommendations from the Midwest Arts Conservation Center (MAC) condition survey and said staff and the consultant agreed the best immediate use of a proposal is to have MAC perform the recommended maintenance on bronze pieces and train city staff to carry out regular upkeep.

Riley said MAC would perform work on a sampling of sculptures — including pieces in the North Market Literary Walk and other bronze works — and at the same time provide hands-on training for city staff so routine maintenance can be managed in-house going forward. “We believe the best use of one of our proposals at this point would be for them to come and perform the recommended maintenance on the bronze sculptures, which would include the North Market Literary Walk,” Riley said.

The committee approved the proposal by voice vote. Members discussed how the maintenance recommendation ties to earlier survey work, and staff said they would follow up on a handful of artworks that were missing from the survey or require additional review. Committee members also discussed the public-matching grant and neighborhood-driven art pathways as complementary tools to address community requests.

Riley said the city will invite MAC to perform the work and will schedule a staff training session; committee members asked to be notified about dates so they can observe or volunteer if appropriate.