HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/21/2020 Item 15, Papp (2)
Tonikian, Victoria
From:James Papp <jamesralphpapp@hotmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, January 21, 2020 1:55 PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Cc:CityClerk
Subject:Letter on proposed public art amendment: 4 additional SLO signers (Kathi Settle,
Wendy Lucas, Jim Andre, Victoria Grostick)
The SLO City Council has proposed this change to our public art policy: “The City shall accept a
‘Work of Art’ that commemorates ideas, ideals and concepts – not individual and actual
people.”
We reject this attempt by the council to restrict how our community may remember and
interpret our past. A community is made of its “actual people.” Its suffering, its heroism,
and its progress are the suffering, heroism, and progress of actual people—be they 9/11’s
first responders, the victims of Japanese relocation, or Rosario Cooper, who rescued the
Northern Chumash language. This attempt to erase human beings from our past will
censor our artists and police our thoughts and emotions. No government has ever
attempted to purge people from the sphere of public space and public memory. To make
San Luis Obispo the prototype of this dehumanizing policy brings international
embarrassment to our community.
Kathi Settle, Chair, City of SLO Jack House Committee
Wendy Lucas, tribal member, yak tityu tityu yak tilhini
Jim Andre, retired Professor of Finance, USC
Victoria Grostick, Ceramicist
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