But Is It Art?

Pondered by the likes of Plato and Oscar Wilde, a pesky question now befuddles the Winston-Salem City Council: What is art?

If you know the answer, contact your council member.

Without it, the council members might struggle to decipher when the City of the Arts should give money to art projects. After all, if it isn't art, then there would be no reason to dip into the city's $100,000 public-arts fund to subsidize it.

A case in point: The city is considering a $7,000 request from the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem for a traveling exhibition called "The Animal Alphabet." The museum wants to put 26 giant letters, created by artist Christopher Clark, in different places around the city from October to May.

The "J," for example, is illustrated by a jellyfish that is more than 6 feet tall.

To move it and the other letters around, the museum wants to build special bases, and that's why it is asking for the city's $7,000. The museum plans to match funds, and the city of Winston-Salem would be recognized as an official sponsor of the project.

Eric Kerchner, the museum's executive director, recently told the city council's finance committee that several schools, libraries and businesses have expressed interest in having a letter displayed in front of their properties.

Without a doubt, it can be said that the project is not for the gallery-hopping crowd.

This one is more for the milk-and-cookie connoisseur.

In a written description, Martha Wheelock, an assistant city manager, told council members that the letters would be presented in a "fun and inviting way for beginning readers."

That may be why Council Member Molly Leight just can't bring herself to say that 26 giant letters spell out her vision of what art is. Meanwhile, other council members aren't as opposed to the idea that the letters qualify as art, but they had questions, too.

Council Member Joycelyn Johnson said during the finance-committee meeting that she wondered whether the museum project was a suitable test case. Council Member Vivian Burke asked that the guidelines for financing public art be clearly defined. And Council Member Robert Clark said he wanted to know how other cities go about choosing public art.

With that in mind, Leight said yesterday that she would support having an outside committee, perhaps the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, make recommendations about which public-art projects the city should put its money behind.

Of the museum's request, Leight said that the project might be better suited as part of a downtown-revitalization project.

"I guess I don't think of it as art," she said. "Then again, who's to say? I think I'm thinking more of permanent art pieces. I think this (museum project) is more in the order of fun things, like painted dogs."

Au contraire, Council Member Wanda Merschel countered.

Merschel said during the meeting that she knows what art isn't when she sees it, and the museum's giant letters, in fact, do qualify as art. Merschel went on to say that she supports the project even more so because it could help get younger generations interested in art.

The friendly disagreement came up in part because the city has not developed criteria by which such grant requests may be considered.

On this, there are no simple answers. Wilde, the Irish author, said that art has no utility, in the sense that it isn't supposed to be a means to an end. Plato, the Greek philosopher, stuck with his language of "forms," saying that art is mere imitation.

As for the museum project, Wheelock said that it seems suitable as public art because it is community-focused, is educational and represents a reasonable request (less than $10,000), and the museum would pay for at least half of the cost.

Clouding the issue even more is the city's possible liability.

Last week, city officials said that four sculptures were removed from Winston Square Park after one of them fell on a 6-year-old girl while she was playing on it. The sculptures belong to the arts council and were part of an exhibit about two years ago in the Sawtooth Building, which is next to the park.

As a result, Deputy City Manager Derwick Paige said, the city is trying to figure out criteria for putting art on public property; for example, how much insurance to have, where to put the art and on what type of base. That information is expected to be ready for the finance committee soon, Paige said.

Kerchner noted that the museum's liability insurance would follow the letters wherever they went.

Leight and other council members said they look forward to hearing about the criteria by which public art should be chosen.

"I certainly don't want to make the judgment on that," she said. "It's all very much in the air."

■ Bertrand M. Gutierrez can be reached at 727-7283 or at bgutierrez@wsjournal.com.