Over 20 years ago I had high hopes we could turn things around in Sioux Falls for local artists, especially visual and musicians. After participating in several local and regional juried shows, different galleries and businesses in Sioux Falls and even starting a large art group, I realized that individual artists in Sioux Falls will never get the support of the city, ever, and that tradition continues.
Today at the City Council Informational meeting a consultant provided their report on arts programming and the city. This study has been done numerous times over the past 20 years. The city pays for it (we do) and they take the recommendations and throw them away, throw a bunch of money at a large arts org, like the Washington Bazillion, and tell them to handle it.
This is exactly what will happen here. I keep telling yah the city is predictable, and on this one, they will go down the same freaking path. Make it look like you are doing something by hiring a consultant, present the plan, throw out recommendations that actually work, and throw a bunch of money at an org that will just blow the grant on salaries while providing little to the local artists.
In my opinion, government and development need to stay out of the arts, you don’t help us anyway, and you are just wasting tax dollars on consultant plans you will never engage.
I wonder if the library has a special room where they store all the art consultant reports the city has wiped their asses with? Because, our city clerk, whose job title is ‘City Archivist’ doesn’t have any city records, he sends you to other departments. So what does a city archivist do all day if they are not keeping track of the records. And who is keeping track of records if you are not? Weird.
GET ME ON THE TELLY!
So at the city council meeting tonight 2 members were doing it telephonic while council chair Ditchy Richy Murkeywaters was running the meeting. While councilor Barranco has been out sick due to emergency surgery, he has been following the meetings telephonically (though his phone must have been broke the night they approved the Data Center 🙂 So tonight it was David and Vernon. Unbelievable. Just appointed to serve a few months and he is already calling in meetings. Hey, David has been there for almost 4 years and had major surgery, what’s your excuse? Must have been busy filling tea bags or something.
It was also funny, because they had the phones on a 1 minute delay (yeah, that is how genius our media department is) and they had such a time figuring it out they had to take a recess for several minutes, then when they returned, the audio wasn’t working for several minutes. Open government? LOL. They first have to figure out how to tie their shoes and turn on a light switch. You know, I would be willing to volunteer with my Amazon $28 dollar livestream setup and film the meetings for you and stream them on YouTube so people can actually see it uninterrupted. What a circus.
l3wis 
