On today’s Plain Talk podcast I spoke with one of the owners of the Lonesome Dove bar in Mandan. He had paid to have a mural painted on the side of his business – it cost him around $3,000 – but bureaucrats at the City of Mandan took exception. They told him his mural was…
Podcast: A Local Government’s War on Art
The City of Manadan put some local business owners through a “five month bureaucratic nightmare just so they could play art critic.” That’s what August “Augie” Kersten, a co-owner of the Lonesome Dove bar in Mandan, said on this episode of Plain Talk. After he paid an employee, who is also an artist, to paint…
You Can’t Just Do Art Without the Government’s Permission
Recently I read an article from Reason about a pizzeria in Arlington, Virginia, which came under fire from local government because the mural they paid to paint on their business featured pizza. The mural included pizza because the business, you know, sells pizza, but apparently that’s against the rules. “Under Arlington County’s sign code, no…