Photo courtesy of Jamestown Renaissance Corporation website In 2019, the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation and Fancher Chair Co. Inc. unveiled an oversized chair at the corner of Third and Lafayette streets in Jamestown. Pictured are: (front) Kristy Kathman, Zach Agett, Pete Scheira; (back) Gary Henry and Brian Millspaw. Chautauqua County wants to have additional giant chairs throughout the county.

Chautauqua County is looking to use some of its tourism-related reserve funding to create murals and place giant chairs throughout the county.

During the legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting, members voted in favor of spending $100,000 to initiate a public art program. The resolution still needs final approval from the full legislature.

Before the vote, Rebecca Wurster with the county’s Department of Planning and Development explained the proposal. “We’ve heard a lot about the importance of public art in our communities, so we want to develop a two-pronged program,” she said.

The first part is the large scale chair project. “This large scale selfie chair would create Instagram-able moments that reflect the community’s tie to the furniture industry and reflect the historic chair design relevant to that area, where that chair would be located,” she said.

Wurster noted that Jamestown has a large-scale chair where people either sit in it or stand next to it for a photo. “We’d like to do five or six locations throughout the county that would be reflective of that community and the furniture industry and celebrate that,” she said.

The second program is a mural program, which the county is calling “Paint CHQ,” where five to six murals are created throughout the county. “This would be a public art program that would include working with our communities, property owners and high caliber mural artists to develop unique murals that really enhance the community and encourage tourism and commerce and create distinct senses of place,” Wurster said.

Wurster said they are looking to create a mapping program, which would include not just the new murals, but existing ones as well. “It will create a real sense of tourism to come and go to the different places on the map throughout our county,” she said.

She said they want to look at bringing in nationally recognized mural artists and also create an apprentice program for local artists to work under them.

Legislators Elisabeth Rankin, R-Jamestown, and John Penhollow, R-Stockton, both expressed their support for the mural project. They also said they want to make sure local artists are involved.

Legislator David Wilfong, R-Jamestown, wasn’t convinced.

“One-hundred thousand dollars is what we’re talking about. That’s an awful lot of money to be spending on an art program,” he said.

He noted how Jamestown has a homeless problem and drug use is high.

“I think the government money could be spent somewhere else. You could give that $100,000 to the 4-H. That would make a real difference,” he said.

Nathan Aldrich, county Economic Development Coordinator, said the money that is proposed for the art project is coming from the county’s 3% occupancy tax reserves. The money is generated from hotels, motels, and short-term rentals, and must be used for tourism-related projects.

Wurster said she believes public art has an economic impact. “That brings tourism, that brings people to communities, that brings a sense of pride,” she said.

Mark Geise, deputy county executive of economic development, said things like the art program help improve communities, which help make them more attractive. “We want to create places where people want to go that have ‘cool stuff’ for a lack of a better term, whether it’s trails or some kind of waterfront park or a brewery, or cool little shops, or art, or chairs where there’s Instagram-able moments,” he said.

He used the example of Shark Girl in Canalside in the city of Buffalo. “People go just to get their picture taken there,” Geise said.

After discussion, Wilfong said he was willing to give his support for the resolution.

The committee unanimously voted in favor of the art program.

On Thursday the same resolution came before the Audit and Control Committee. At that meeting Legislator Terry Niebel, R-Sheridan, said he felt $100,000 was too high. He proposed cutting the amount to $50,000 but none of the other committee members agreed.

When the time came to vote, Niebel voted against the proposal. The rest of the committee voted in favor.

The full legislature will vote for final approval on Wednesday.