One Percent: An Exhibition of Student Photographs of Percent for Art Projects

Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Officer for the City of Philadelphia joined The Art Institute of Philadelphia President Dr. Bill Larkin in welcoming hundreds of guests to the 1622 Chestnut Street Gallery on Thursday, October 29 for the opening reception for One Percent, an exhibition of student photography to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Percent for Art programs.

Photography students Sigourney Acevedo, Dominic DiPaolo, Jordan August, Violet Brown, Alex Cowperthwaite, and Eileen Veight from The Art Institute of Philadelphia have photographs in the exhibit alongside works by student photographers at The University of the Arts, Moore College of Art and Temple University Tyler School of Art.

View a Slideshow of Photographs from the Opening Reception

Pictured: Gift of the Winds by Joseph C. Bailey Photo: Eileen Veight, student at The Art Institute of Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and the City of Philadelphia are sponsoring the exhibition, which will be on display through January 8, 2010 in the 1622 Chestnut Street Gallery.

Fifty at Fifty
Fifty years ago, in 1959, the City of Philadelphia was home to a groundbreaking idea. For the first time in American history, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and the City of Philadelphia required that certain urban renewal projects use one percent of their construction budgets to commission original and site-specific public art. This was the beginning of the Percent for Art Programs, which represent the first government legislation requiring art in public places as a means of humanizing and enlivening the urban environment. Partly as a result of these efforts, Philadelphia’s public art collection is recognized as one of the largest and most renowned in the world. Overall, more than 600 works of public art have been commissioned through the Redevelopment Authority’s and the City’s Percent for Art Programs.

To mark this milestone anniversary, the Redevelopment Authority and the City’s Percent for Art programs are working with students and faculty from Philadelphia’s many art colleges and universities to photograph fifty of the programs’ most prominent pieces of public art, while highlighting the concepts to which the One Percent for Fine Arts programs are dedicated:

• That art should be as much a part of the city landscape as signs, traffic lights, benches and trees;
• That art should be in public places where ordinary people can see it, enjoy it, reject it – even sit on it and touch it;
• That art can be conceived of as an integral part of architecture, urban development and urban life;
• That art should be free and available to everyone at all times of the day and under all conditions, not only in an art gallery or museum environment.

History
In March of 1959, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority adopted the first “One Percent for Fine Arts” Program in the United States, making the commissioning of new works of public art integral to the Urban renewal process. Ever since, in each project built on land acquired from or assembled by the RDA, the selected developer has been required to budget one percent of the total building construction cost toward commissioning original, site-specific works of public art.

Iconic pieces such as The Clothespin at 15th & Market and Wave Forms at 34th & Chestnut Streets were commissioned under this groundbreaking program.

The City of Philadelphia’s ordinance was enacted in December of 1959 under Mayor Richardson Dilworth and states, “An amount not to exceed one percent of the total dollar amount of any construction contract for a building, bridge and its approaches, arch, gate or other structure to be paid for either wholly or in part by the City, shall be devoted to Fine Arts; provided that the Art Commission certifies in writing that said ornamentation is fitting and appropriate to the function and location of the structure.”

Over 300 works of art have been commissioned for City facilities in neighborhoods throughout the city. Philadelphia’s Percent for Art Programs are used as a model for requiring site-specific public art in cities and towns around the world.