Re: Re: Wexford Council wants “something more traditional”

Regardless of how you feel about the sculpture – and I happen to think it looks promising, though I’d need to see it in more detail – this story neatly sums up so much that’s wrong with the involvement of town/county councillors in the running of their local areas.

With few exceptions, councillors have no experience of judging art. However, they have limited knowledge of architecture, traffic, drainage etc. but it hasn’t stopped them meddling… sorry, being involved in the planning process, and their limited knowledge of heritage/conservation hasn’t stopped them being involved in the compilation of the RPS, so it should be no surprise that they feel qualified to pass comment on this competition winner.

What’s the age profile of the councillors? And the gender split? If more than 25% of them are not middle aged males, I’ll eat my hat. Probably the closest most of them ever get to an aesthetic judgement is lying in response to the question ‘Does my bum look big in this?’

Has anyone asked local kids what they’d think of it? I suspect they’d be far more in favour (and more in favour of something like this than of something ‘more traditional’) as it looks like the kind of sculpture that kids would interact with, and surely the opinions of locals who will be around for more than the next 20 years are more important that the opinions of locals who see their tenure on the council as a reward for blind loyalty to their birthplace?