A restriction that permits Jackson Square artists to display and sell only their original works -- not prints or the art of others -- will stand, the City Council decided Thursday.

(AP Photo/Bill Haber)

Jackson Square artist Jemu Harrington works on a portrait in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Thursday, April 5, 2007. A restriction that permits Jackson Square artists to display and sell only their original works--not prints or the arts of others--was upheld by the City Council by a unanimous vote.

By unanimous vote, the council rejected an amendment to a city ordinance that would have allowed prints to be sold in the tourist-heavy French Quarter square that fronts St. Louis Cathedral.

On a typical day, artists paint and sell their works alongside street performers and palm and card readers.

More than a dozen artists opposing the measure attended the council meeting with signs bearing slogans such as "No Prints On Jackson Square." Three addressed the council before the vote.

"Jackson Square has been my art school," said Joanna Palmer, who started painting in Jackson Square in 1969. She told the council that school groups and young artists come to Jackson Square to watch artists paint original work, and allowing the sale of prints would affect that tradition.

"There's a historical significance, of artists sitting in Jackson Square and painting. You should have one place where you protect this tradition," said painter Lee Tucker, a St. Louis native who has been painting in New Orleans for the past 35 years.

Tucker didn't address the council but said he felt strongly prints or reproduction art should be saved for art galleries and such venues as the nearby flea market.

"Once you open the door to reproductions, it opens the door to all kinds of things," Tucker said.

The amendment would have allowed artists to sell prints of their work in limited editions. However, posters, sculptures, motion pictures, books or any work that wasn't their own still would have been prohibited.

Council member Stacy Head said there were a number of problems with the ordinance, authored by council member James Carter, including a lack of city resources to enforce the new rules.

The sole artist who spoke in favor of the proposal said he's not a proponent of selling work he didn't create. He just wants to offer something besides original works.

"People will buy in the street what they won't buy in a gallery. Why? Because they won't go in there. For a lot of people, it's intimidating," said Jack Wittenbrink, who cuts paper into unique shapes to create his art.

Still, some French Quarter residents and civic groups sided with artists who want only original works of art to be sold at Jackson Square.

"We don't want to see the square become like the flea market," Nathan Chapman, president of Vieux Carre' Property Owners, Residents and Associates Inc., said in a written statement.

Chapman also said the expansion of items permitted for sale at Jackson Square would create unfair competition, since artists on the square have low overhead and French Quarter shop owners pay rent and utility expenses.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)