created a license-plate design contest<\/a>. He’s since promoted the concept of locally designed manhole covers.<\/p>\nAs he explains it, he was on hold in fall 2015 when he was struck by how awful the state’s telephone hold music is.<\/p>\n
“The Muzak makes me want to pull out the hair I don’t have on my head,” said Kreiss-Tomkins.<\/p>\n
He thought of alternatives and considered the approach of Alaska’s public radio stations.<\/p>\n
“When you call a public radio station, they often patch through a live feed of the radio, and I always thought that was a real nice touch,” he said.<\/p>\n
He began working with the Alaska Department of Administration, which handles the phone system, and GCI, which is the state’s telecom contractor.<\/p>\n
The project moved slowly: Bartholomew wasn’t selected as the curator of the project until December 2016. She said a lot of her original ideas ran afoul of licensing problems because the rights to the music weren’t available.<\/p>\n
“Now that we’re kind of at the end of the project, I wonder if we should have just considered someone to commission instrumental music because that would have been a lot easier,” she said Tuesday by phone.<\/p>\n
In May, with the project nearing an end, Kreiss-Tomkins met with representatives of the governor’s office at Saffron, the downtown Juneau restaurant, and over Indian food, they decided to get ambitious with the project and try to get permission from Portugal. The Man to use their music.<\/p>\n
It was easier than navigating state bureaucracy. By July, the band had agreed to donate the use of their music to the state.<\/p>\n
“Even though Portugal. The Man donated it, we had to make sure we had the proper licensing, and we do,” said Department of Administration Commissioner Leslie Ridle.<\/p>\n
This isn’t the first time the state has tried such a project. In 2009, the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council commissioned the “Alaska On Hold” music project, but only the University of Alaska Southeast got onboard.<\/p>\n
This time around, an impending change in administration could derail the project, but Ridle believes that’s not likely.<\/p>\n
“It won’t stall just because there’s a new administration; there’s no reason to,” she said.<\/p>\n
At the Arts Council, Brown said he sees this new project as akin to the state art bank, which allows state buildings to borrow the artwork of Alaska artists for interior decoration.<\/p>\n
“If you’re doing it for visual arts, why not do it with performing arts?” he said.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at jbrooks@juneauempire.com or 523-2258.<\/b><\/p>\n
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