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Fenty shifts funds to get art for new Nats ballpark
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(Examiner file photo)
Mayor Adrian Fenty has moved to shift $770,000 from the city’s equipment leasing fund and into the budget of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which will use it to purchase artwork, including sculptures, for the 41,000-seat stadium. District government leaders are now in general agreement that commissioning and purchasing artwork for the Washington Nationals’ new ballpark will not violate the $611 million stadium construction cap. Mayor Adrian Fenty has moved to shift $770,000 from the city’s equipment leasing fund and into the budget of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which will use it to purchase artwork, including sculptures, for the 41,000-seat stadium. Adorning the ballpark with extras, whether it be art or hands-free plumbing fixtures, has been a matter of some contention in recent months. First, D.C. Council Member Kwame Brown struck $850,000 from the arts commission’s fiscal 2008 budget, fearing the expenditure would bust the ballpark cap. D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols later expressed concern that any addition to the project outside the original scope would push the cost over $611 million. “As construction of the stadium continues, council may wish to establish or clarify the policy and procedures applicable to the addition of any new line items and the redirection of funds to increase existing line items, including establishing a dollar threshold that would trigger a requirement for council review ...” Nichols told the council in a June 28 report. Brown last week introduced a resolution to disapprove the most recent $770,000 “reprogramming request,” because, he said, no one told him first what the money was to be used for. Brown said Thursday he needed “to make sure it did not do anything to jeopardize the cap on baseball.” He has since been briefed by Fenty’s staff and it appears the shift will go through. “It’s going through the arts commission and the arts commission is going to own the art,” Brown said of the $770,000. “They’re going to put art on the garages, and they’re going to do a sculpture of D.C. heroes as you walk up to the stadium.” The arts commission has issued three “calls for artists” this year for projects tied to the stadium — for bronze figures, for “garage enhancements” and for a “suspended installation” in the main concourse. The art will be temporary and eventually moved to another location, said Alan Heymann, a spokesman in the mayor’s office. |
