ABIA will have Art

In a lengthy (sometimes meandering) discussion, City Council approved up to $3.1 million in art (and art-related) contracts for the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Thursday. Council members voted 10-1 to approve the contracts. Council Member Don Zimmerman, who was the only Council member to vote in opposition, attempted to move the contracts to an unspecified Council committee, but found no support. “We received, as of this morning, 54 emails. A lot of passionate emails, and all of them in favor of spending money on the arts. None of those came from District 6,” said Zimmerman, who swung hard at the fact that the contracts would not be going towards local artists. Director of Economic Development Kevin Johns explained that it was not that simple, saying, “we expect that up to 80 percent of the money would be spent on local businesses that actually would assemble, construct, and put the piece of art together.”