After 16 arrests throughout his career, street artist Shepard Fairey is completing the first of three murals as a commission through the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Civic leaders in Elko County, Nevada are supporting the arts by commissioning a new public artwork. The editorial news column from staff of the Elko Daily Free Press encourages the growth of public art in the Elko County. In the editorial, public art is stated as a value to the community citing recent projects by the Neveda Department of Transprotation and a 9/11 memorial. Though the abstract works that were prominent civic artworks many have challenged communities, the value of a public artwork enhances a sense of place for the area.
From August to September of this year, the Boston Arts Commission has commissioned eight temproary artworks to be installed at variouis intervals in the Roxbury neighborhodd of Boston. Artists range from high school students to emerging college studnets and locally-based artists. The artworks reference the history of Boston and the future of the city. As the the director of the Boston Arts Commission Karin Goodfellow stated, "We believe that public art is an expression of our passionate ideals, intellectual curiosity, and cultural narrative.
In Lafayette, Indiana public art is springing up in the West. Local artists Alexandria Monik and Aaron Bumgarner will be creating art that responds to their surroundings in the West Lafayette neighborhood. Monik takes on refurbishing a dilpated and closed bar by creating storyboard paintings on the shuttered windows and doors of the building.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) recently highlighted Sans Façon's "Hide to Show Better," a public art installation in Saskatoon which was recognized in the Public Art Network's 2014 Year In Review. During the program, juror Janet Zweig was invited talked about the judging process, why "Hide to Show Better" was recognized, and the role of public art plays in communities.
Americans for the Arts needs YOU to help us test the Public Art Network (PAN) Year in Review Database. The database allows you to search and find details about past works recognized by the PAN Year in Review from 2006-2013. Information about awardees from 2000-2005 will be added by the fall of 2014.
With grant support, a temporary display of public art has been installed along the Yahara River in the city of Madision, Wisconsin. Five local artists were awarded compensation funds to develop artworks that respond to the Yahara River. Some of the artworks are more responsive to the history, such as Thomas Ferrella's “Black Hawk Yahara: A River of Tears”. As stated in the original article, people have come to the river walk to see the artworks and are excited by the visual impact of the exhibition.
On May 24th the new 30-acre park on Governors Island will open to the public and will be the location of several public art pieces and the beginnings of a new public art program. Artists like Susan Philipsz and Mark Handforth have created artworks specifically for the site. Upcoming works will include a permenat sculpture by British artist Rachel Whiteread.
In the beginining of February the Public Art Network (PAN) Council members came together in Los Angeles, CA for thier annual winter meeting.
The exhbition "This Land Is Your Land" will be on display starting at the end of May in NorthPark Center in Dallas, TX. Ivan Navarro, a native born Chilean artist, created a series of water tower artworks that intergrate neon and text. The artworks, formarly on display in Madison Square Park in New York City, are situtated within a shopping plaza. Visitors can walk underneath them to see the text installed within the water towers, which reference a vital structure used to support the city.
Can art fuel a movement? ArtPride NJ and the Printmaking Center of NJ have teamed up to campaign that art is as much a part of life as food, water, and air. The two organizations have teamed up with artist Lunar New Year (LNY) and printer Jase Clark to create limited edition silkscreen and digital prints entitled FOOD WATER AIR ART. The art piece promotes the need to prioritize, fund, and support the arts.
Historical public artwork "Subway Riders" by artist Ralph Fasanella will be taking a trip over the next three years as part of a traveling exhibtion. "Subway Riders" was installed in the New York City subway in 1980's and is one of the more signficant publicly accessible pieces on display in the subway system. It will be exhibited with the show “Self Taught Genius: Treasures From the American Folk Art Museum.”
A group of community leaders in Grand Forks, North Dakota are creating a public art program using the development of 42nd Street as a catalyst. The proposed commission of arts and culture, which includes representatives from the city’s Urban Development department, the Grand Forks Park District, North Valley Arts Council, North Dakota Museum of Art, the Chamber of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, an architect, and three local artists, is looking into the long-term future to make polices for public art and to review current artworks located in public spaces.
On Monday, February 3, the arts world lost cultural maven and lifetime arts advocate, Joan Mondale. As the wife of Walter Mondale, vice president to President Jimmy Carter, she used her public position to place a bright spotlight on the vital role that artists and arts organizations play in strengthening American communities.
Jane Golden, artist and Executive Director of Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program, recently talked to Metro Atlanta LINK, the planning agency for the 10 county Atlanta metropolitan region, to show how the arts can help address an urban area’s most intractable problems and bring creative energy to a city’s streets and its walls. Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program was first implemented in 1986.
Liesel Fenner, Americans for the Arts’ public art program manager, was a guest on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show on September 26.
The show discussed public art’s role in placemaking and community building. She appeared alongside Angela Anderson Adams, public art administrator for Arlington Economic Development, and Roger Lewis, architect, “Shaping the City” columnist at Washington Post, and Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Maryland College Park.
