From downtown buildings awash in spray paint to sculptures erected under the watchful eye of the City Council, Ann Arbor is saturated in colors and ideas. Public art is the pulsating beat of the troubadours who stake out the Diag in warm weather. It’s the artful bike racks installed by the city that adorn State Street and it’s the spontaneous poetry scrawled in Graffiti Alley. Public art is for the people, by the people.

But that broad definition doesn’t really fit. And the meaning of public art itself is constantly being redefined, challenged and debated.

The Ann Arbor government has recognized the need for public art: The Ann Arbor Public Arts Commission (AAPAC) is dedicated to erecting inoffensive works of public art throughout the city, in various mediums.

Some small businesses have ordered conventional, city-approved murals to be painted on the sides of their buildings. Yet other public art is more organic and oftentimes more subversive — done under the cover of darkness, spray-paint can in hand, with lookouts watching for city authorities. Cathy Gendron, a member of AAPAC, even said The Rock that students have covered in splashes of paint for years is a form of public art.

Mark Tucker, a lecturer for the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program and a champion of public art, sees art everywhere — even on Football Saturdays.

“The whole atmosphere is a creative ritual, from the costuming to the tailgates to the intermission show, with amazing ballet-inspired showmanship and awe-inspiring physicality on the playing field,” Tucker said. “(It’s) not unlike what you would see if you were to witness what goes into the fabrication of a heroic piece of sculpture or a grueling theatrical rehearsal.”

Public art is not just about aesthetics — it’s an integral part of life. And according to Tucker, public art reflects our humanity and has an impact on the shape and feel of our society.

The One Percent

The Ann Arbor City Council has recognized the importance of public art even in times of economic free-fall. Staffed by artists and art enthusiasts, AAPAC acts as a vanguard for pushing works of public art. The Percent for Public Art program was created in 2007 by an ordinance requiring one percent of the cost of any publicly funded improvement project to go toward public art.

AAPAC is in charge of commissioning those one-percent projects. According to Gendron, the commission collects feedback from the community and the City Council, and generates its own ideas in order to figure out what art project to break ground on next. AAPAC tries to be democratic with its decisions, but there are a lot of stringent rules governing what kinds of public art can be funded by the city.

AAPAC has facilitated quite a few of Ann Arbor’s more visible pieces of public art, including the recently revealed bronze sculpture outside the Municipal Center. The wall of bronze is dotted with blue glass pearls that brighten up when they collect storm water flowing from the Center. The water feature wasn’t an organic add-on from the German designer of the sculpture, Herbert Dreiseitl. Rather, money was set aside for a public water project, and in order to comply with the 2007 ordinance, the resulting public artwork had to incorporate water.

In many ways, AAPAC is limited by the City Council in what it can do. Multiple voices are involved in every step, from brainstorming to deciding where to put a piece. City Council Liaison Tony Derezinski described the slow process — coming up with an idea and then waiting for the idea to meet the city’s criteria of “careful, and very prudent” before being unveiled.

The reactions to the Percent for Public Art program have been mixed. AnnArbor.com posted an article in September 2011 that quoted various council members criticizing the program for only creating two art pieces in four years.