New York art is now on Instagram; ours is on a motorway near you

New York City has given its public art work a personalised Instagram account, bringing hundreds of pieces into the social media realm.

The @NYCulture page is an initiative from the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the open-source hashtag #NYCultureOnWheels allows passers-by to contribute towards the archive. It’s just about possible that the narcissistic pursuit of insta-culture might actually encourage introspection, but no promises yet.

The project is also a collaboration with NYC’s Percent for Art scheme, which sees roughly 1 per cent of the dough for construction projects directed towards surrounding sculpture, installation or decoration. The Percent for Art policy is common across Europe and US cities, but the budget allocations vary widely. NYC seems to demand that at least 1 per cent of its multi-million buildings go into the aesthetics, and it throws on a few half percentages more for every extra few million spent on the construction.

In addition, the city has a public art fund and a slew of generous mayors who frequently donate fat stacks of cash to the arts.

In Ireland, the Percent for Art policy is most notable as the bland roadside attractions that come included with motorways. College campuses employ a similar regime, but themes of globular brass anomalies and vaguely humanoid blobs seem to dominate.