Will There Be Art at Columbus, GA, Library?

-- Library Journal, 09/23/2005

More than six weeks after the Muscogee County Library Board, Columbus, GA, voted July 28 to withdraw from a $250,000 contract to install an abstract sculpture in the new Columbus Public Library building, the questions of whether the artist will be paid—and whether there will be new art in the library—remain unanswered. The library board's art committee voted that they should not use $296,000 remaining in contingency funds for the construction project to buy art, according to the Ledger-Enquirer. About $122,000 of that sum has been targeted for projects by library staff, and unused money would go back to the city. Library director Claudya Muller said that, given the December 31 deadline to finish the project, there wouldn't be time to solicit and evaluate proposals for art. Meanwhile, the library is still negotiating with sculptor Albert Paley, whose 35-foot abstract metal sculpture was rejected after the library board signed a contract to buy it.