The Philomath City Council voted unanimously Monday to dissolve a dormant streetscapes-focused art committee and establish a new one aimed at bringing public art to the community.
The council’s 6-0 vote (one member absent) dissolved the Downtown Streetscape Project Public Art Ad-Hoc Committee, which had been inactive since June 2024, and created the Public Art Ad-Hoc Committee to take its place.
The original committee was formed in late 2021 to support art projects connected to downtown improvements. During the streetscape work, concrete plinths were installed at several downtown locations specifically to display future public art installations.
“That’s kind of our goal — to get something on one of those plinths,” Assistant City Manager Chelsea Starner said. “We’ll have the ad-hoc committee to help make the recommendation for which plinth we should start with and to just give a little direction for that.”
Starner suggested that the new committee’s membership include five at-large members with two of them having professional art experience, preferably in public art procurement, creation, installation or maintenance. Another member would represent the Philomath business community and a city councilor may serve as a nonvoting liaison.
Applications for the five at-large positions are being accepted online until 5 p.m. on Sept. 30. Interviews and appointments are scheduled for the council’s Oct. 13 meeting. Those with questions can contact the city recorder at 541-929-6148 (option 5) or visit Philomath City Hall.
The move comes as city staff works to streamline codes governing the city’s various boards, commissions and committees.
“Right now, we have a bunch of different committees and boards and commissions and they’re all structured a little differently,” Mayor Christopher McMorran said. “Our plan is to come to the council at some point later this year or beginning of next year with a sort of broad overhaul.”
The topic had been discussed this summer at a Finance and Administration Committee meeting.
McMorran mentioned that there are “some committees in there that have not met in 15 years … We’ve had committees that are currently meeting that are not in there. So we just kind of want to standardize everything.”
While the new committee will operate temporarily as an ad-hoc body, Starner noted there’s potential for creating a more permanent structure during the upcoming code update. She said most cities maintain permanent art committees.
“It can be really helpful for staff to have some folks that can help with that lift of keeping tabs on things,” Starner said.
Public art and the formation of an art committee had been identified as strategic plan goals by the council.
