The Bismarck Park Board did the right thing Tuesday by affirming its support of art produced by students of United Tribes Technical College. The final one in a series of eagle sculptures now can be made so that it can be mounted and viewed in Sertoma Park.

In the process of coming to a decision about the project, the board approved a statement of position on public art. The statement is only a start, in essence a description of how the park district has handled issues of displaying art in parks and what it thinks now.

The plan is for the Dakota West Arts Council to develop comprehensive policy for the park board to review and hopefully implement. That probably won't happen quickly, though it would be much better if it did. The group should produce as soon as it can.

It doesn't seem that the park board had bad intentions when, earlier in May, it voted to hold up on its support of the fifth and final work in the eagle sculpture project. It was more a case of getting cold feet - wanting to wait on approvals until it has definitive guidance from a fully developed public art policy. To have a fleshed-out policy might have given the board more confidence in dealing with some criticism of the eagle displays board members had to handle.

So they decided to put things on hold until at least some policy was stated. The district staff provided that.

Surrounding the way the matter developed have been charges of racism and wounded denials.

It took some grit for the park board to take up the matter again and follow through with its commitment, whatever criticism is lurking out there.

In its statement of where it stands now, the district declares it's committed "to providing and facilitating public art of quality and diversity which adds to the community's vibrancy and identity."

It pledges to "use public art as a vehicle to express our unique history, cultural heritage and legacies … to foster the community's sense of spirit, pride and community values."

Noting that these are selected declarations from a two-page document, still, they represent the tone.

It's supposed to strengthen a sense of community when people show their creations to the community. The district staff came up with some solid material, including this: "… the public is the final beneficiary of public art."

The controversy isn't really about Native American artists at UTTC or even park board decisions or art policy. It's a matter of Bismarck's continual exploration of its identity. In this self-examination, it will come out that it's a lot of work to keep an open mind, whether toward what should be displayed in a park or toward members of the community.