After the demise of the ACT government's public art scheme and as the debate about Skywhale continues, the private sector has been going it alone, quietly investing millions of dollars in public art in Canberra.
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The Molonglo Group property developer has alone invested more than $3 million in public art in the New Acton precinct over the last five years.
The privately owned Canberra Airport is dotted with significant artworks and even has an artist-in-residence, acclaimed sculptor Ante Dabro, who works from an old building at Fairbairn, part of the airport precinct.
And the Village Building Company has spent close to $1 million putting family-friendly works in its housing estates across Canberra, to ''create community pride and bring people together''.
The companies say the artworks are about humanising a space and creating interest, and they don't begrudge a cent.
Molonglo Group director Nectar Efkarpidis said Canberra couldn't become a city with richness and soul without public art. New Acton now had 50 pieces of art, with works by New York artist Steven Siegel recently unveiled and others by environmental art pioneer Alfio Bonanno to be installed
by the end of the year.
''I think if you want to build places that resonate and connect with human beings, it's important,'' Mr Efkarpidis said. ''It's not an indulgence. We think artists don't get an opportunity to be commissioned enough, there isn't enough federal or even local funding.
''So we think the art is important to make place and because if organisations like ours don't do it, there'll be fewer of these things.''
A spokeswoman for the airport said owner Terry Snow and his son, managing director Stephen Byron, had an ''absolute commitment'' to privately funded art being in the public realm, all part of a bid to made Canberra ''the best small airport in the world''.
''Terry and Stephen have absolutely set out to create an atmosphere, a sensory experience for people who visit the airport so it is something more than just a space people get on or off a plane,'' she said.
There were now 14 artworks in the airport precinct, including sculptures by Dabro. Another two pieces - two nudes destined for the departure lounge and a mother and child sculpture - would also be installed at the airport soon.
Dabro, who has sculptures on Anzac Parade and City Walk, commissioned by the federal or territory governments respectively, says he prefers to work for the private sector.
''You don't get bogged down in bureaucracy,'' he said.
Under the patronage of Mr Snow, Dabro, 75, has the space and time to work. He is in the studio at Fairbairn, every day, listening to classical music and creating large works in bronze.
''Thank God Terry is around,'' he said.
Mr Efkarpidis said he liked the hot air balloon Skywhale but what he thought ultimately didn't matter.
''I think the debate about public art isn't about whether you like it or not. For every piece of work, there are as many opinions as there are people,'' he said.
''It's social commentary, it says something about a period of time, it sparks debate, it makes you feel good, it makes you feel bad. That's what it's intended to do.''
He said the private sector should be involved in public art ''to the extent that it can. Some people have a bigger commitment than others. It's not whether we all should have that commitment.
''Private philanthropists will do their bit, private organisations will do their bit, individual artists will do their bit. It's not one group over another,'' he said.
