In 1977, bbk appointed for the first time an art-in-buildings representative who, to-gether with the board of directors, elaborated transparent and democratic participa-tion procedures and competitive rules for the awarding and implementation of projects in the area of art-in-buildings and art on public premises.
After public pressure by artists and bbk on politicians in the Senate and Parliament, a directory statute was passed by Parliament in 1979, according to which 0.5 percent to 2 percent of total building costs of public construction projects are to be expended on art.
At the same time, the already functioning art-in-buildings office of bbk was subsidized by the government from this point on and integrated into the Cultural Project by bbk berlins as a new work area.
The office has the task of putting the statute to use and to ensure democratic and transparent procedures in competition awards. The Committee for Art in Public Spaces, elected by the bbk, suggests artists for invited procedures.
- Every artist residing in Berlin that has interest in tenders for Art in Public Spaces can apply for admittance with the submission of work samples and an artistic résumé in the Office for Art-in-Public-Spaces (KiöR).
- The bbk committee for Art in Public Spaces, and the advisory boards active in Berlin, recommend suitable artists from the file of applicants for the limited competition.
- The Office for Art-in-Public-Spaces (KiöR) provides advice and accompanies artists and awarders during the entire procedure, from awarding to imple-mentation and granting of the order, on behalf of and as advocate for the art-ists.

Additional Information

The awarder is the legally binding partner for all participants in the tender. The awarder must guarantee the proper execution of the competition. He awards the order in accordance with the competition results. Awarders can be a public authority (fed-eral, regional or local), an association or a private person. In most cases, it is a public authority.
Technical prize judges are the awarder, representatives of a public administration or the users.
Professional prize judges are the artists and art experts. Professional prize judges should always be the majority on a jury.

Competitions
Tenders, in which results for a task shall be found by comparison of artistic achieve-ment. In this, artists are challenged to participate under identical conditions. The works are judged by an independent jury.
A distinction is made between open competitions and competitions by invitation. With an open competition, participation is open to all artists. The competition is publicly announced. The artists receive no expense allowances for the outline of their ideas. In limited competitions, the participants are invited personally and receive an expense allowance for submitted ideas or models.

Makeup of the Decision-Making Bodies
The panels (juries, advisory boards, commissions) should have an odd number of members and be made up of equal representation. The members should be profes-sional and technical experts: artists, representatives of the awarders and users, ar-chitects, trade publicity; and representatives of the relevant administrations. Art ex-pertise should represent the majority.
The employees of the Office for Art in Public Spaces are not judges, and neither choose artists for projects nor nominate themselves. They are required to ensure transpar-ency and democracy in the implementation of procedures and to put through the rec-ommendation of the advisory boards.

The Committee for Art in Public Spaces
The Committee is made up of six artists who are authorized to vote, and a guest. They meet at least once a month. Their task is to view the incoming files of the artists and to make recommendations for limited competitions. The committee members are elected at the members meeting of bbk berlin. During their membership on the com-mittee, the artists are, of course, not available for procedures handled within the committee.