Two decades ago, Perth councils began adopting “developer percent for art” policies, and now nearly 75 per cent of the city’s LGAs have one.
That’s according to RobertsDay, an urban planning and design firm which recently published a report based around a survey of councils to find out how developer-funded public art is faring in WA.
It found that allocating a percentage of the cost of a development (such as offices, apartments, commercial or institutional buildings) to fund and install public art is a valuable planning tool that has helped deliver the State Planning Strategy 2050’s ambition of “creating spaces and places that foster culture, liveability, enterprise and identity”.
“LGA -based developer Percent for Art policies are generally operating well, and delivering successful outcomes,” the report said.
While the report found there were occasional issues in implementation, traceable to either planning policy/guideline frameworks, resourcing or internal LGA organisation structures, it recommended the “ongoing refinement and improvement of Percent for Art, championed and led by councils and the state government”.