By PAIGE ARCANO
(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) – The City Council on Monday agreed to have city staff write an ordinance that will set aside money for public art.
This program is called 1% for Art, which sets aside 1 percent of all eligible public construction, renovation and capital improvement project costs within the city limits of Warrensburg, according to city documents.
Jeff Imboden is the chairman of Warrensburg Arts Commission.
“I’m here to again say thank you for supporting the (Arts) Commission…and everything that we do,” Imboden said. “You know our commission works very hard.”
The first commissioned public arts piece is titled “Downtown Vibrations.”
The second commissioned piece is “Bobbers,” located at Lions Lake. The artist, Justin Shaw, was also asked to build special crates to store these art pieces during the winter.
“(The bobbers) are movable,” Imboden said. “We can put them in different places in the lake and create some activity and some interest with that.”
There is funding needed for both the commissioning and acquisition of new artwork as well as old art, Imboden said. This includes the Blind Boone statue and the wind harp at Blind Boone Park.
“I think this will make a difference in our community,” said Baird Brock, chairman pro-tem. “I think this is part of what we are talking about in looking at the city as a winner.  We’ve got a state university. We’ve got an Air Force base. We have a strong cultural base here. This is supporting and encouraging that strong cultural base. It’s speaking about who we are, saying we value this. I think this is a very winning idea.”
Mayor Donna Defrain said the commission was getting a lot of compliments.
“I have very creative people on my commission,” Imboden said. “They’re outside of the box all the time.”