Houston City Council members are set to consider re-approving the Houston Arts Alliance as the vendor for a $25 million 2-year contract, with the option of 3 one-year extensions, for the management and conservation of the City of Houston’s art collection. The price and limited information surrounding their work, including inventory, have many wondering if it’s the best use of public funds amid the city’s tight financial situation.
The city’s Civic Art Ordinance requires 1.75 percent of the total budgeted cost for capital improvement projects to be spent on acquiring or conserving civic art. Because of the requirement, the city has amassed a large art collection over the years, with the number of individual works exceeding 800, and the most recent valuation, which is years old, valued the collection at more than $20 million.
The HAA is a nonprofit that partners with the city to “implement the City of Houston’s vision, values, and goals for its Arts grantmaking and civic arts investments.” They contract with the city, as in this instance, and their work is overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
Some believe locking the city into a $25 million, potentially 5-year, contract is not in the city’s best interest due to the deep concern over the city’s financial stability and the track record for doing the work in years past.
District E Council Member Fred Flickinger has drawn attention to the overall issue of requiring 1.75 percent of capital improvement budgets to be spent on art, and he has also taken issue with the contract with HAA given that they were unable to provide more details to his office when he met with them.
“They may not use the funds to purchase art, they may use the funds to maintain art, they may use funds to conserve art, they may not use the funds at all… even though we said this is money to buy art, they did basically whatever they wanted to do.” He recalled his meeting with HAA where employees told him they didn’t have an inventory of the art they managed.
When the item first came before the council, they referred it back to the mayor’s office for additional information and reconsideration.
Mayor John Whitmire brought the item back, however, it came before the council days after Hurricane Beryl hit Houston leaving several council members absent as they were working in their district. Some of the members in attendance delayed the item one more week to allow the missing council members the opportunity to vote on the item. They are expected to consider it this week, with public comments on Tuesday and the council to vote on Wednesday.
