South DaCola

Censored and Rejected Mural Artists have response to the new Bunker Ramp Mural

l3wis September 25, 2023 8Comments

As I have said recently, I separate what happened to them compared to how Portz was able to create the mural. These artists were censored by the mayor;

“An open letter from the original artists of the 10th Street Mural

September 19, 2023

By Amber Hansen, Reyna Hernandez & Darcy Millette

The Sordid History of the 10th Street Parking Ramp Mural and What Became of the Project Steeped in Controversy.

Sioux Falls, SD

There are many aspects surrounding the state of the arts throughout South Dakota that should be a cause for concern, but for the sake of this article, we will speak specifically to the state of Public Art and the city of Sioux Falls.

Based on our experience as the original artists chosen to paint the 10th Street Parking Ramp Mural, we’ve reflected on the process and would like to highlight some of the structural transgressions that we encountered:

– There is no clear or transparent process that outlines how artists are selected to create art for public buildings in the city of Sioux Falls.Public art on city owned property in Sioux Falls is presided over and controlled by the mayor. The mayor’s office has complete authority to approve or deny what art is displayed in public spaces. Simply put: One person has the power to define the arts culture in a major part of Sioux Falls and to dictate the cultural value of art based on how “instagramable” and “non-controversial” he considers the art to be.

– The Visual Arts Commission (a commission created by the mayor’s office) has no real sway when it comes to the art decisions in Sioux Falls and is seemingly in place for the sake of optics.

– Artists should be fairly compensated for their work. Low wages set an unsustainable precedent for working artists.

Sioux Falls Art and the 10th Street Parking Ramp

The Plan:

In the fall of 2022, the Sioux Falls Arts Council (SFAC) in partnership with the City of Sioux Falls and the Visual Arts Commission (VAC) released a request for qualifications (RFQ) inviting artists to apply for an opportunity to create a new mural on the side of the 10th Street parking garage.

Three finalists would be selected and given an honorarium to create a design for the parking garage. Once the Sioux Falls Arts Council and the Visual Arts Commission reached a consensus and selected the design, it would be presented to the mayor for approval.

What Happened:

The Sioux Falls Arts Council and the Visual Arts Commission unanimously selected a design created by three local artists. The design was sent to the mayor for approval. After reviewing the design, the mayor dismissed the design chosen by the SFAC and the VAC and selected another artist from the group of finalists and began working towards approving the other design. At this point the mayor began an entirely new selection process without input from SFAC or the VAC (despite the fact that the Visual Arts Commission is a committee of people that his own office appointed). When we were notified by the Sioux Falls Arts Council that the mayor had rejected our design, we requested a meeting with the mayor’s office or a written explanation as to why they would not be moving forward with our design. We were denied any such correspondence.

Due to the violation of the previously set protocol of the selection process, the Sioux Falls Arts Council decided to halt participation on the mural project. The project funder, Marketbeat, also decided to withhold their donation. The city then released a statement that the project had simply “run out of time” and that there would be no new mural, citing that a consensus could not be reached on the design. In reality, the mural was stalled because the mayor didn’t agree with the Sioux Falls Arts Council and Visual Arts Commission’s design selection and thus attempted to override the process, in an effort that wasted time and resources.

What’s Happening Now:

In August of 2023, the mayor hand-picked an artist for the parking garage who used Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to create the design. The move required approval from the Sioux Falls Arts Council and the Visual Arts Commission. The new mural design was presented during a meeting without informing the attendants that they would be voting on this new design.

Our Perspective:

As A.I. generated content becomes a new threat to artists and their creative livelihoods (i.e. SAG-AFTRA strikes and amongst visual artists across the globe) the mayor has essentially organized a mural created using controversial A.I. generated imagery without input from the qualified artists and professionals on his team (the SFAC and VAC). Additionally, he has chosen an artist who agreed to paint the entirety of the nearly fourteen-thousand square foot wall for a lump sum of $30,000. That is $2.14 per square foot. We assume the artist is also responsible for covering the cost of materials. Considering that muralists are generally paid $20-$50 per square foot, it’s worth mentioning that the distribution of labor and wages for this project sets an unrealistic precedent that artists can work for extremely low wages.

In addition to undermining processes and promoting questionable, if not potentially unethical methods of designing art for public spaces, mayor Tenhaken is now in the process of dismantling the Visual Arts Commission by creating a new arts commission in his vision; a commission comprised of business owners, engineers, financers and fewer artists.

We do not know the mayor’s reasoning behind rejecting our design as he refused our request to discuss the project. We did not receive any correspondence from him or his office throughout the process. Due to this lack of communication we can only speculate on his subjective view of our design so, we would like to take this time to remain focused on sharing our experience concerning the violations of process carried out by the mayor’s office and the amount of control that he has over the arts & culture of the city of Sioux Falls.

Sioux Falls should have a clear and transparent process for deciding public art on our city buildings and for selecting the new City Arts Coordinator. The Mayor should rely on the Sioux Falls Arts Council and Visual Arts Commission and likewise qualified people to make art based decisions that affect the public art landscape. The City should find ways to better support arts programs in Sioux Falls so they can help the arts and culture in our community thrive.”

This is why our property taxes keep getting raised in Sioux Falls

l3wis September 25, 2023 1Comments

The finance director will tell us we need the money for plowing streets and maintaining pools but we all know why our property taxes and assessments keep going thru the roof;

Since the city doesn’t track liabilities for future maintenance in the budget process, city leaders feel blindsided when a major maintenance issue occurs. In 2023, the city realized the Sixth Street bridge needed replacement. Some city leaders expressed dismay about this “unexpected” infrastructure expense. The bridge was close to 50 years old. It was obvious that it would need work at some point, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise when it did. But the city doesn’t acknowledge future obligations, and therefore can’t plan for them.

I have often seen the city build these huge brand new roads in Sioux Falls and I think to myself, that is going to cost us in a couple of years.

During the discussions at the Active Transportation Board many members expressed concern about how unsafe our roads and sidewalks are for pedestrians and bicyclists. Guess what, that Genie ain’t going back in the bottle. We built these inner city freeways and that won’t change anytime soon. I have said to people, if you think Sioux Falls was expensive to live in now, you wait.

All these employers in the hospitality industry are crying they can’t find workers, maybe it’s because they can’t afford to live here?

Who says gov’mint can’t be funny?

l3wis September 23, 2023 8Comments

I was reading the agenda for the joint Sioux Falls city council meeting with the Lincoln County Commission and this line of bullsh!t really made me laugh;

The goal of effective growth management is based on a plan which designates where different types of new development should go, and determines when those areas should be opened for development. Identification of desirable future growth areas with sufficient land appropriate for development is a central component of the Comprehensive Development Plan. The growth management philosophy of Sioux Falls is to provide developable land when it is needed in amounts sufficient to prevent limited supplies from artificially driving up land costs. It is also important that the timing and location promotes orderly, compact new growth that allows the most cost-effective provision of public and private services.

Heck, Grammarly or AI could do a better job of explaining . . . and I am still not sure WTF they are talking about.

I dare you, read it like 10x, you will become even more lost, Hell, I even read philosophy and was completely lost. If anyone can figure out this paragraph, please fill me in, or better yet write your one sentence synopsis of this.

Here is mine;

When considering purchasing real estate, it always important to carry a tape measure, calculator and Diet Dew.

Washington Pavilion hosts opener to Planetarium with decades old movie

l3wis September 22, 2023 3Comments

The Pavilion decided when opening the new planetarium they should show a movie that was decades old, a Foot Soldier who attended put in in perspective;

We went to the new Planetarium the other night during a members-only event at the Pavilion.

With everything we have been hearing, all the hype about the NEW state-of-the-art planetarium, we were shocked that they are playing such OLD programming. For example, the film they showed us talked about space exploration that “is scheduled to be happening in 2014.” The film mentioned old dates in this way several times! So this film had to have been at least 10 years old, probably more. Really, why would they be showing old videos? In the context of space exploration, that is ancient history and does a huge disservice to the viewers. Additionally, the animation in the film is OLD very low quality, looked terrible.

The rumor going around is that the Pavilion bought a license free digital library for the Planetarium, which is NOT a bad idea, but they should only be used for fill in. Any NEW movies or material should be rented by the Pavilion to show the latest releases. On top of that they charge an extra $5 dollar fee to go to the planetarium! On top of that, that, a few years ago the Pavilion fired their entire catering staff and job it out! Can we have anything nice in this town?

Did the ‘Wine and Cheese’ Dems in Sioux Falls screw up a public event with DOT Secretary Buttigieg?

l3wis September 20, 2023 12Comments

I changed my registration from Dem to Indy when Daschle voted for the Iraq War and have not returned. At the time, there was gobs of evidence that the WMD claims were a ruse, and Tommy Boy certainly knew that, and I told a friend, “I guess the Dem party doesn’t believe in diplomacy anymore, so I’m leaving them until they do.”

Fast forward last week when Pete came to South Dakota but seemed to skip a public event in the state’s largest city.

While the media was clueless as usual and I’m sure no one in city government was going to do a photo op with a Biden appointee I still had some hope that the South Dakota Dem party would do a public event.

Rumor has it they had the event, it just wasn’t public.

Some Sioux Falls Democratic legislators decided to throw a private party with Buttigieg. So not only was the public NOT invited, many Dem loyalists from across the state were also not invited.

I saw some selfies on FB with Pete at a popular DTSF hotel bar and was wondering how this event came about.

The ‘rumor’ is the SD Dem party left it up to a certain SF legislator to plan any events around Pete’s visit, inviting the public and other Dem party reps.

She decided to have a private party instead, you know, because that builds party support in a state that is 90% RED!!!!!!!!

You know, you are called the ‘Big Tent Party’ and if you want to work on the recruitment numbers, that haven’t been positive in years, when prominent, respected, Dems come to town, you use them as a recruitment tool not a book end at your cocktail party.

I don’t think things could get much worse for the party, even if TenHaken was running it.