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Council opens public hearing on creating a Peekskill Arts Council
Summary
Council opened a public hearing on a proposed local law to establish a Peekskill Arts Council to curate and maintain public art and broaden representation across artistic disciplines; speakers asked the city to include young and underrepresented artists and consider paid staffing.
The Common Council opened a public hearing on a proposed local law to create chapter 103 of the Peekskill City Code, establishing a Peekskill Arts Council to steward public art and cultural programming.
Carol Sammel, planning staff, said the draft local law grew from regular participants and consultants and is intended to formalize the body and allow members to be sworn in. Public commenters urged the council to broaden the arts council’s remit beyond visual art to include performing arts, dance and theater and to consider younger and struggling artists in appointment pools. "Please extend the net wider than the visual arts," Nancy Wareham Gordon said, urging appointment practices that include students and early-career artists and that the council consider maintenance of public art as an explicit duty.
Another speaker, Joseph Squilante of the Peekskill Arts Alliance, recommended the council consider a physical storefront or small center and a paid executive director to give artists a street-level presence. The public hearing record will remain open until the council closes the hearing and the council later will determine appointments and administrative details.
