With more than 150 artworks around town, Chapel Hill’s public arts program has grown in recent years — and town officials hope to soon add two more artworks to the total.
A project planned for Chapel Hill’s most heavily traveled entrance has prompted a change in public art policy at a state level.
If funding is secured, the proposed sculpture by Raleigh-based artist Thomas Sayre will greet travelers at the Erwin Road and U.S. 15-501 median.
UNCBefore he could begin, the town needed permission from the N.C. Department of Transportation, which oversees the roadway. But no policy for public art on roadways existed.
“There wasn’t anything for them to do except for say, ‘We don’t really know anything about this, so we’re just going to have to say no,’” said Jeffrey York, public art administrator for Chapel Hill.
Sayre and York, along with public art proponents from across the state, helped draft a measure that would allow such a project to exist. The Department of Transportation adopted the measure — the Public Art on the Right of Way Policy — in December 2010.
The legislation will increase the number of public art projects on roadways statewide, said Brendan Greaves, North Carolina Arts Council’s public art and community design director, who also worked on the policy.
A systematic way to approve the installation of public art on roadways has been a long-standing hope across the state, he said.
“There will be more and more thoughtfully integrated art into transportation systems, like sound barriers on highways,” Greaves said.