How Chicago Funds and Selects Its Public Art: A Guide to the Percent for Art Program

Chicago commissions most of its public art through a single, rule-bound pipeline: the Percent for Art ordinance, which reserves 1.33% of the construction budget for qualifying city-owned or city-financed buildings and certain outdoor improvements. The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) administers the program, and the path a project takes depends largely on one number. Projects with an art budget above $10,000 go through a competitive selection process with a panel and mandated community meetings; projects at or below $10,000 are usually awarded as direct commissions. For artists, that threshold determines how to pursue the work. For residents, the process begins with the local alderman, whose notification is the first formal step in shaping what gets installed in a neighborhood.

Navigating Chicago's Public Art Program: An Overview

The Chicago Public Art Program is the city's official machinery for placing art in public space, and DCASE is the agency that runs it. The program's scale is substantial: in 2025, the DCASE Public Art team was managing nearly 40 projects across 19 wards, in airports, transit hubs, viaducts, and other public sites, totaling $10 million in public art investments, according to the department's own description of the program.

The Percent for Art ordinance is the program's backbone, but it is not the only route to a commission. DCASE also manages public art projects initiated by City Council members through discretionary funds and participatory budgeting, which run alongside the ordinance-based pipeline. This guide focuses on the ordinance-driven process, where the rules are most clearly spelled out in the city's published Percent for Art guidelines.

Two features distinguish the program from a purely administrative grant system. First, the money is tied to construction: art funding appears only when the city builds or substantially renovates a qualifying structure. Second, the process is deliberately community-based. The guidelines state plainly that the program is "intended to be both project-specific and community-based," and that intention is enforced through required meetings and outreach steps described below.

The 'Percent for Art' Ordinance: Funding Public Creativity

The ordinance works by attaching art money to bricks and mortar. When the city constructs or undertakes a major renovation of a city-owned or city-financed building or structure, or certain outdoor improvements, 1.33% of that construction budget must be used to commission art at that site. The art is not chosen in the abstract; it is tied to a specific building and its surroundings.

The qualifying buildings named in the guidelines are the everyday infrastructure of city life: libraries, police stations, fire houses, senior centers, and others. That means a new branch library or a renovated fire house carries with it a built-in art budget, and the artwork is commissioned for that location rather than for a general city pool.

The ordinance has been in place since 1978, and over that time hundreds of sculptures, murals, paintings, prints, stained glass, and photographs have been donated, commissioned, or purchased for the Chicago Public Art Collection. Some works sit outdoors, while others occupy semi-enclosed or indoor public spaces. The collection is a lasting civic asset, and the same department that commissions new work is also charged with caring for what already exists.

Community at the Core: Mandated Input in Art Selection

Community involvement in Chicago's program is not a courtesy; it is built into the sequence. After a project is identified, program staff notify the local community of the opportunity, and that notification begins with the local alderman, the community's elected representative.

The alderman is asked to help identify community institutions and organizations — historical societies, churches, chambers of commerce, block clubs — as well as individual residents who may be interested, such as neighborhood historians and people known to care about the arts. This step assembles the roster of stakeholders who will be invited into the process.

The engagement requirement has teeth. Chicago's program mandates a minimum of two community meetings for every Percent for Art project, held to gather input on potential artists and the types of artwork residents want, as Patricia Walsh explained in an explainer on percent-for-art programs for Public Art Curious. The result is that neighborhood voices enter the record before an artist is chosen, rather than after a decision has already been made. For residents, the actionable point is early contact: the alderman's office is the first door, and the stakeholder list it helps build determines who hears about the meetings.

Chicago Public Art Commissioning Pathways

The matrix below sorts a prospective public art project by its budget and shows what happens at each stage, so artists and residents can identify the correct process before investing time in either applying or organizing.

Decision matrix: which Chicago public art pathway applies, and what happens next
Project profile	Funding mechanism	Selection process	Community involvement	Maintenance responsibility
Percent for Art project, budget over $10,000	1.33% of the construction budget for qualifying city-owned or city-financed buildings and outdoor improvements, including libraries, police stations, fire houses, and senior centers	Competitive process managed by DCASE, including a project description, an artist selection panel, and community input; staff may consult knowledgeable persons on site suitability	Minimum of two community meetings; outreach begins with the local alderman identifying community organizations and interested residents	City of Chicago, through DCASE, conserves and maintains the work as part of the Public Art Collection
Direct commission, budget of $10,000 or less (artist fee, fabrication, and installation combined)	Same ordinance-based funding stream, at a smaller scale	Usually awarded as a direct commission rather than through the competitive process	Community notification remains part of the program's project-specific, community-based design	City of Chicago, through DCASE, once installed in the collection
Donated artwork	Not ordinance-funded	DCASE determines whether to accept the donation, where it is installed, and how it is displayed; donor recognition is minimal and discreet, and donor bricks and branding icons are not accepted	Not specified by the ordinance's meeting requirement	City of Chicago, through DCASE, as part of the collection

Decision matrix: which Chicago public art pathway applies, and what happens next

Project profile

Funding mechanism

Selection process

Community involvement

Maintenance responsibility

Percent for Art project, budget over $10,000

1.33% of the construction budget for qualifying city-owned or city-financed buildings and outdoor improvements, including libraries, police stations, fire houses, and senior centers

Competitive process managed by DCASE, including a project description, an artist selection panel, and community input; staff may consult knowledgeable persons on site suitability

Minimum of two community meetings; outreach begins with the local alderman identifying community organizations and interested residents

City of Chicago, through DCASE, conserves and maintains the work as part of the Public Art Collection

Direct commission, budget of $10,000 or less (artist fee, fabrication, and installation combined)

Same ordinance-based funding stream, at a smaller scale

Usually awarded as a direct commission rather than through the competitive process

Community notification remains part of the program's project-specific, community-based design

City of Chicago, through DCASE, once installed in the collection

Donated artwork

Not ordinance-funded

DCASE determines whether to accept the donation, where it is installed, and how it is displayed; donor recognition is minimal and discreet, and donor bricks and branding icons are not accepted

Not specified by the ordinance's meeting requirement

City of Chicago, through DCASE, as part of the collection

Reading the matrix is a two-step exercise. First, classify the project by its total art budget: above $10,000 points to the competitive pathway, at or below $10,000 points to a direct commission. Second, whatever the pathway, expect the community sequence — alderman notification, stakeholder identification, and the meeting minimum on Percent for Art projects — to run alongside the artistic selection. An artist who knows which row a project falls into knows what to prepare: a panel-ready proposal for the competitive route, or a relationship with DCASE staff for the direct route.