Metro Council President David Tandy, D-4, and LVAA executive director Shannon Westerman

Metro Council President David Tandy, D-4, visited the Louisville Visual Art Association today to announce the creation of the new Community Art Gallery at City Hall. The gallery will display up to 100 different pieces of visual art by local artists in the 134-year-old government building.

“In City Hall, the structure itself is a piece of art,” Tandy says. “You’ll see that visual arts gives us an opportunity to tell a story of a community that will last for generations.”

Beginning on April 13, local artists will be invited to submit their work to be hung on the walls of City Hall to showcase their talent. The work must be Louisville-themed, measure 18-by-24 inches and for ready hanging.

The art will be on loan to the city until the end of the year, but depending on the number of submissions, the pieces could be rotated throughout the course of the year. Tandy says a committee of curators will review the art before putting it up in order to balance artistic freedom with ensuring only appropriate artwork is displayed in the public building.

“It’s a great opportunity for local artists to display their talents in a very public venue with no admission fee or charging for it,” says Shannon Westerman, executive director of the Louisville Visual Art Association.

Westerman says part of Louisville’s allure in the region is its vibrant arts community. He hopes to see the city and state government do more to support the visual art and artists.

Last year, Metro government cut its $1 million contribution to the arts by 50 percent to fill the projected $20 million budget shortfall. The budget cuts have been especially hard for smaller arts groups that relied on that funding.

“A lot of people come from Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Nashville just because of our arts,” he says. “Not because of our sports, but because of our arts. And that’s a really important thing government officials need to remember and support.”

Last September, Mayor Jerry Abramson announced that a group of artists and curators would spend the next year studying and laying out a strategy for funding and placing more public art throughout the city. The Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Public Art spent $50,000 to hire Creative Time, a New York City-based art group, to develop a master plan for creating and displaying more public art.

Abramson spokesman Chris Poynter says the mayor’s office has been kicking around an idea similar to Tandy’s that would put the work of local artists on display in nearby Metro Hall. They expect to unveil the first round of recommendations from Creative Time by late summer or early fall.

“We’re real excited because this master plan will have some creative and exciting ways to move public art forward in the city,” Poynter says.