Poor Brenda Mills. She’s a real nice lady, but she was the one that got stuck being the City of Asheville’s Stimulus Czar. Now, as economic development specialist, she will be organizing “a new series of public art contracting courses.”

“The class provides opportunities to understand how the city does its ‘calls for artists’ and allows artists to ask questions and gather more resources on how to market themselves and receive information on future calls,” Mills says.

OK. I’m not into government-subsidizing art while people are attacking and starving each other. Taxes have bigger fish to fry. Besides, government art hits me like an oxymoron.

“All artists are not ‘public’ artists,” she says, noting that the differences between a work commissioned for a private collector or organization is vastly different than [sic.] one commissioned for a city, and thus for taxpayers. When making a bid for a public work, an artist’s submission must reach out to all audiences, or what Mills calls “universal appeal.”

Interpreting the artful comment, I feel public art is putting stuff together like the vanilla ice cream played on office music channels. It has no edge to strike on a personal level, and so really serves no purpose, other than to exist. Good art resonates with a subset of humanity on a level that makes them cry, think, and love a little better.