CHAPEL HILL -- Town Manager Roger Stancil has appointed Jeffrey York, director of public art and community design for the N.C. Arts Council, as the new public arts administrator for the Town of Chapel Hill. He is scheduled to start on June 15.

Chapel Hill has a range of public-art programs, including a Percent for Art Ordinance that allocates 1 percent of any municipal project construction budget to the creation and maintenance of permanent works of public art.

"Jeffrey is the ideal person to work with the town and its Public Arts Advisory Commission," Stancil said in a news release. "He will facilitate the transition of the public art staff to town staff and current independent board to an advisory role. Our goal is to integrate public art into the context of what the town does every day."

As public art and community design director for the Raleigh-based N.C. Arts Council, York facilitated public art and cultural facility design activities and processes to communities statewide. He initiated a public art in the schools residency program and maintained an 86-piece public-art collection located throughout North Carolina.

Previously, York was executive director of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont and education director at the Birmingham (Ala.) Museum of Art.

The Chapel Hill Town Council in March 2002 established the town's Percent for Art Ordinance. In North Carolina, the only other cities with percent-for-art programs are Asheville and Charlotte.