Lincolnite

So what this amounts to is a $250,000 donation from the City of Lincoln to the YMCA.  When did charity become a function of local government?

Would you care to explain what you mean?

This project, as well as the Tour de Lincoln, were funded by tax-payers.  So when that art is sold, it would make sense to give the proceeds to taxpayers.  Instead, the money is given to non-profit organizations.  Therefore, it is essentially a donation from Lincoln taxpayers to the YWCA.

Do you have any numbers? I can’t find any solid funding information, but what I have found suggests that each piece of Star Art artwork had a sponsor ($1,000 for artist expenses, $1,000 for the YWCA), and the final works were sold to the public. None of the resources I have been able to dig up mention anything about public funding for Star Art.

Information on the Star Arts project is a little scarce.  What I said above is clearly the case for the Tour de Lincoln, but less clear for Star Art.  If I get the chance, I’ll dig a little deeper and see what I can find on Star Arts.

I’m glad you brought this up Mr. Wilson.  I have noticed significantly less buzz about Star Art than Tour de Lincoln and I’ve been wondering why that is.  Is it public apathy or did some of the novelty wear off?  Has the media not given it the attention it gave Tour de Lincoln?  I can’t put my finger on it either.

I do like some of the art I have seen, it just is less obvious so sometimes you have to look harder to see it.

Still a great project that I enjoy seeing in Lincoln.

Star Art was indeed funded as you said. The artists went through a selection process, and then those selected promoted their art to businesses, who decided what would get funding. Only the artists that got funding got to be a part of the star project. The only thing the city may have done is to provide space for viewing the art- even then, most of the art I saw was in businesses, not city owned property.

One of my coworkers had a star art… um… thingie.

Anyway, I think the whole thing had great potential, but too many people took the “star” theme far too literally. How many big metal sculptures of stars do there really need to be? My favorites were the bench and the quilts, but I’ve always had a thing for quilts.