And the answer is 'Unfortunately, no'

• Published November 20, 2008

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There was a question recently, I believe from Rep. Richard Debolt, about using the Arts Commission portion of the Heritage Center/Executive Office Building budget to relocate the prized Jean Cory Beall mural in the General Administration Building.

"The short answer is, unfortunately, no," said Alice Taylor, a program manager with the arts commission today.

She explained the public projects art funding to the Capitol Campus Design Advisory group this morning. For every public building project one half of 1 percent of the budget goes to public art installations. (This does not apply to transportation projects, no matter what I-985 said.)

That money has on rare occasions been used to move pieces of art, including transplanting a sculpture from the Department of Printing to South Puget Sound Community College. But that artwork was created in 1981, well after the Arts Commission was created in 1974.

The RCWs specifically say that the commission may use funding to manage its collection, and define its collection as public works created under the statue that also established the commission. In other words: things done in 1974 and thereafter.

The Paul-Bunyan might and atomic power of Beall’s 1950 mosaic doesn’t meet the definition.

Barbara Swift, a member of the design committee said she was thrilled with the determination. Spending new art money for conservation of old art "would be sending the wrong message," she said.

But others in the room, including GA managers, were more concerned. The mosaic appears to be attached to a wall in the GA Building, and that building is supposed to come down in a little more than a year’s time. No Arts Commission money, and the bad, bad state budget picture mean there’s even more doubt about the future of the mosaic.