By Anne Levin

At its Monday, March 25 meeting, Princeton Council voted in favor of a resolution creating an Ad Hoc Public Art Study Committee.

The group, which is not permanent, is chaired by James Steward, director of the Princeton University Art Museum. Adam Welch, who heads the Arts Council of Princeton, is vice-chair. Councilwoman Michelle Pirone Lambros is on the committee, along with Princeton’s Planning Director Justin Lesko and area residents Jody Erdman, Karey Maurice, Tom Moran, Elizabeth Allan, and Ronah Harris.

Erdman is a real estate agent for Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty, and worked for Sotheby’s Auction House in New York. Artist Maurice has worked with the Trenton Artist Workshop Association. Allan is a curator and the deputy director of Morven Museum and Garden, and Moran works as the public arts coordinator for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Harris works primarily in fiber and ceramics, and is the founder of Play Pattern LLC, a digital platform for children to learn arts and technology.

The purpose of the committee is “to investigate and evaluate the options that might be available to the municipality for shaping and overseeing a public art program,” as noted on the municipal website. By the end of the year, they are to compile a report with recommendations on how to select artists and the placement of public art, as well as potential sources of funding such as a percent-for-art funding mechanism.

Five ordinances were introduced at the meeting, and five resolutions were approved. Among them was the authorization of a contract for spring tree planting, not to exceed $44,670, which went to Sunset Creations of Belle Mead, which was the lowest bidder for the project. The property leases and management agreements for three sites under the direction of Housing Initiatives of Princeton, at 132 Brickhouse Road, 134 Griggs Drive, and 140 Griggs Drive, were extended.

The next public meeting of Council is at Witherspoon Hall on Monday, April 8 at 7 p.m.