Durham Schools VS Performing Arts

2008-12-07T18:33:00.003-05:00

Durham Schools To Cut $1.3 Million

I saw this news story on the nbc-17 website and thought, what if the Durham City Council could cut the budget for the Durham Performing Arts Center budget and grant that money to the Durham Public schools so they will not have to cut. What a great idea. Maybe the could cut the light from the Bridge to the sky and give this money to the schools. Just think about what our schools could do with the money they are about to loose. I know the power bill for the light is not 1.3 million but surely there is money they Durham City Council could come up with to help their schools. I hope the Durham City Council and other cities in similiar circumstances will see this idea and move some money around. I know that the Durham Public Schools is funded by the County and not by the city but they could give a grant like I suggsted.

Durham City Council Should Have Rejected The Plensa Light Sculpture

2008-11-01T22:44:00.001-04:00

The Durham City Council has accepted a gift from Capital Broadcasting Company to fund and donate to the City a work of public art, comprised of a vertical light beam rising out of a sculpted disc bearing a quotation from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The proposal has been reviewed by the Cultural Master Plan Advisory Board (CMPAB) and the CMPAB’s Pubic Art Task Force. Both recommend that the City accept the piece based on artistic merit and appropriateness to the location. The donor proposal had been reviewed by the appropriate City departments, and by the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) architect, and it has been discussed with the DPAC operator.
Video from Durham City Councils website reveal that One of the council members expressed concern with using city space to talk about guilt associated with murder. The statue has the following quote Macbeth: I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Lady: What do you mean? Macbeth: Still it cried sleep no more to all the house; Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more. A comment was made that it would take a heavy duty grinder to grind off the offensive words. The council member wished they had more time to study this but the Durham City Council voted to accept the donation anyway. Since the city's ad-hoc arts commission had accepted the donation the council chose to accept the donation even though they had these objections. During the meeting the city also expressed concerns about the birds being attracted to the light and had addressed this issue by changing the color of the light from White to Blue. This would they hoped would not be a problem for the birds. They will look at this more closely next October when the migrating season starts again. Again another issue came up after spending so time commenting on the new venue's energy savings, the subject of the lights energy usage came up. The council very thoughtfully handled this by buying carbon units to offset the energy usage. If we accept global warming as man made as I understand it we should reduce our carbon emissions not make ourselves feel better by buying carbon offsets. A better offset would be to reduce the outdoor lighting in Durham and make sure all the lights do not cause light trespass as I like to call it. The city council also said the light sculpture was art and did not pollute the dark sky.The city wants to add more lights around the trees. Are they going to buy more carbon offsets? How about buying carbon offsets for the lights they have now? If we are so worried about how to offset carbon units for this light lets go all the way and accept responsibility for all of our energy usage. Don't stop there, tax the citizens for how much energy use they have in their house.
After listening to the audio from the City Council meeting it became apparent to me that since all the city agencies they set up had approved this donation they had no choice but to accept it even though all there concerns had not been met. It is not too late. They can vote to reconsider.
Learn more details of the reason for opposing the sculpture go to the website http://www.stopthelightsculpture.com.
Look at the Durham City Council Video.