Artery back to square one? Zeller says verbal agreement might be best

EUREKA SPRINGS -- About 10 weeks ago, the Eureka Springs City Council voted unanimously to enter into a contract to allow James Yale and Charlotte Buchanan to continue the operation of the Artery, a downtown outdoor art exhibit. But, as it has turned out, the devil is in the details, and despite holding a workshop and much council discussion later to iron out details of the contract, the council has been unable to finalize the agreement.

The Artery has drawn controversy over a couple of the 4' by 8' panels that have drawn complaints from visitors and viewers of a Fox TV story about the panels. Council members have discussed ways to provide more oversight so that paintings on public display don't offend residents or visitors.

On May 11, the council voted that Artery displays be juried by six people appointed by Yale and Buchanan, and six people from the newly formed Eureka Springs Arts Council.

But that plan fell apart when the Eureka Springs Art Council declined to jury the Artery. Zeek Taylor, a local artist who is the representative of artists at large on the new Arts Council, said jurying the Artery exhibit did not fit the mission statement of the Arts Council.

Promotors, not jurors

"The purpose of the Arts Council is to promote the artists and arts of Eureka Springs as indicated by our mission statement and vision plan," Taylor said. "One of our main goals is to promote Eureka Springs as a leading arts destination and let the world know that. We are focused on getting the word out there about the positive aspects of the Eureka Springs arts community. We want to be positive. And we do have a lot of positives."

Taylor said he hopes that issues concerning the Artery can be resolved and that the display can continue. In the latest issue of The Artists Magazine, a professional publication he receives, there is an article about paintings on public buildings and how they generate interest and create an art ambience for cities where they are displayed.

"I feel that the Artery does the same for Eureka Springs," Taylor said.

Mayor Dani Joy said the Arts Council was not set up to enter into political issues or contracts that need to be decided at the council table. But she said council members said they would be willing to help establish outside entities that could help with jurying the art.

Verbal contract backed

While the contract details have been debated for hours, now one alderperson who has been vocal about criticism of some of the art, Joyce Zeller, says the city might be better off continuing the Artery with only a verbal contract with Buchanan and Yale.

Zeller opposes the city signing a contract with Congressional District Partnership (CDP), a nationwide organization that serves as an umbrella for non-profit efforts. CDP has accepted the Artery as a public charity, which allows the Artery to share CDP's tax-exempt status.

Forty percent of a sale from the Artery goes into a trust to support artists in Northwest Arkansas, and the remaining 60 percent goes to the artist. Buchanan said it is common for non-profits to use umbrella organizations like CDP because it saves a lot of time and money for bookkeeping and tax filings.

But Zeller doesn't want the city to sign a contact with an entity based in another state, but instead with someone local who can be held accountable if the city has a problem with one of the paintings such as it deteriorating.

Why rock the boat?

"Until someone explains to me why Charlotte refuses to have her name on the contract, I'm not for it," Zeller said. "If we cannot solve this problem of who is going to sign the contract, then I don't think the contract should be signed at all. We have been advised by several legal sources not to enter into a contract like this, which makes us legally liable. Charlotte had verbal permission to hang the art earlier, and that doesn't get us into any trouble with the IRS. I don't understand why it can't go on that way."

Since the last council meeting, Alderperson Beverly Blankenship participated in a conference call with City Attorney Tim Weaver, CDP Vice President Jan Ridgely, Buchanan and Yale. Blankenship said she since has provide each alderperson a copy of the papers confirming that the Artery shares CDP's tax-exempt status and that the CDP is willing to enter into the contract.

But it still take four votes to approve the Artery contract, and with two alderpersons opposed and one recently abstaining from voting, that would mean the contract would be approved only if supported by the mayor.

Blankenship says she doesn't think the board wants to get rid of all the art because some people were offended by a couple of panels. But she does believe it their job to insure art in public places isn't offensive. She thought the council had arrived at a compromise assuring that when the Arts Council was going to help jury the exhibit. With that out of the picture, Blankenship says she would trust artists to police themselves.

A question of integrity

She also said she personally would never into an agreement like the council did in voting earlier to sign a contract with the Artery, and then go back on her word.

"I would hope we would be that way as a council," she said. "But from what I heard at the last meeting, I'm not sure.

Alderperson James DeVito, who has supported the city signing a contract with the Artery, said he hasn't heard anything from Buchanan and Yale indicating that having the work juried would be a deal breaker. While he has heard criticism that this amounts to the city censoring art, he said providing a public place for artists to display their work should involved some "give and take."

Where abstraction meets concrete

"Recent controversy has brought out that there needs to be some conditions on what can and cannot be displayed for public view," DeVito said. "Just the nature of art is that we are dealing with a very abstract medium here. Government is very concrete and definable, but we are dealing with something that, by its nature, is not definable. Therein lies the rub."

Buchanan said the trademarked Artery has been up for five years, and only two out of 103 paintings have drawn fire. She believes the theme or the new show planned to go up Labor Day weekend, which is "seasons," will be less controversial than the current theme of religious and cultural icons.

She took issue with an earlier statement by Zeller that artists don't care if they are hurting the business of Eureka Springs.

Art is business

"In the 1960s, it was the artists who revitalized the boarded-up downtown," Buchanan said. "If they don't think these artists are business people, they are crazy. Art is their business. They are not trying to turn people away."

Buchanan said the clock is being run down on the Artery because artists need time to complete such large paintings. Responding to DeVito who said Labor Day is an arbitrary deadline, Buchanan said that date has been used in the past and should be used again because it is one of the biggest weekends of the year drawing large numbers of visitors.

"The bottom line is the Artery enhances our reputation as an art community," Buchanan said. "It is an original creation to draw attention to us as an arts destination and artist community. It is part of the creative economy, and studies have shown how important that is in Arkansas. And if they make us discontinue the Artery, they aren't just taking down 27 panels. They are also destroying an artists trust."

Buchanan is urging Artery supporters to attend the next council meeting June 22 at 6 p.m.