In today's economic climate, a fixed funding source for public amenity creates tremendous value for a city that takes pride in its commitment to community input, education, environmental quality and aesthetics. Santa Monica has also found that by combining funding from multiple sources it is able to address a wider range of issues in a public project, including an unusual focus on aesthetic concerns. The project was approached as a collaborative effort among departments within the city, and the design team was structured similarly. The division between the design disciplines cannot be read in the work, as no one item bears the imprint of a single signature. If the art is cut from the project, so are the funds that support it.
Funding is linked to the art.
Clearly one of the benefits is the ability to leverage additional. If money is one benefit, another has to be public relations. Because of local activism, the City of San Diego adopted a precedence setting Council Policy nearly a decade ago that legislates artist involvement in capital improvement projects. There is no set percentage devoted to art, rather a requirement to incorporate the discipline at the project's inception. Therefore, integration is encouraged and the artist's role is negotiable.