Arts and Culture Board adopts community strategic plan, will present it to City Council

The Littleton Arts and Culture Board voted on Feb. 13 to adopt its Arts and Culture Community Strategic Plan and forward the document to City Council for review. Board members said the plan will guide public art, venue and partnership work through 2025–2027.

Board members and staff described the role of the board under the plan as primarily advisory and advocacy-focused, with most front‑end implementation work assigned to city staff in 2025 and increased board participation in 2026–27. The board’s plan will be reviewed with City Council at an April 8 meeting and may be revised after that discussion.

Discussion during the board meeting covered possible revenue sources identified in the draft, including a draft “percent-for-art” policy. Staff said council showed greater openness to applying a percent-for-art model on public projects (for example, allocating a share of a public construction budget to art acquisition and maintenance) than to requiring a percentage on private development at this time. Staff described one draft option discussed with council staff that would set aside about 1 to 1.5 percent of qualifying public construction budgets for art acquisition and use half a percent as an ongoing maintenance escrow in some proposals; council requested additional work and monitoring of lodgers-tax revenue before taking steps that would affect private developers.

Board members asked staff to return with refined language and minor edits rather than substantive rewrites; after a motion to adopt and forward the plan, the board approved the proposal by voice vote. The motion to "adopt and advance the arts and culture community strategic plan" was moved by Joseph Haynes and seconded by Kate Ekel; the chair recorded the vote as unanimous.