Americans for the Arts

In 2014, a coalition of Wynwood-based organizations invited a frenzy of mural artists to turn the school into an outdoor gallery. Even though the school’s walls looked vibrant, the students were not included in the mural project in any significant way. They were mere spectators to the act of creativity, rather than participants in the creative process. Did the murals fully empower the local students to be capable, responsible and active citizens? In other words, did this good-intentioned mural painting project do enough?

More than anything, this project has shown me the power of art. You can reach a public that spans the globe and this reach is exponential.

As public art project managers, we walk the line between nudging artists to push their vision and practice while giving them the confidence and trust to imagine and execute a groundbreaking artwork. Trusting your own expertise and instinct—paired with an understanding of an artist’s aesthetic, studio practice and process—paves the way for an authentic and successful artwork.

Imagine Art Here: Tysons Tiles was an ambitious project for a public art novice. I learned some valuable lessons managing a public art project for the first time that I’d like to pass along.

My brief was to make something temporary, to create a colorful distraction to the development and inspire people—but it accomplished so much more: it confirmed that culture is an essential amenity to the growth of a city. 

I envisioned an image of the sheep straying into the park. It is as if, from somewhere far away, one day a flock of sheep wander into Chinatown Park at the Rose Kennedy Greenway for some unknown reason. But at the same time, they look natural as if they have been there all along.

“Chroma Booster” plays on the tradition of having a fountain in large public gathering spaces. The 55-foot tall painted pipes invited visitors to the pathway to cool off in the mist or play with other features that will send water cascading on their friends. Visitors see how art can be transformational and repurpose something utilitarian like a parking lot into a vibrant public meeting space.

The more I looked at the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers coming together in Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River, the more I drew parallels between those waters and myself. I, and so many others like me, are the children of two genetic and cultural rivers that propelled towards each other for thousands of years. The confluence of these two rivers can be seen as the unavoidable collision of the Old World with the New World.

Murmur Wall is a two-year experimental installation that offers a glimpse into the immediate future. It is an artificially intelligent, anticipatory architecture that reveals what the city is whispering, thinking, and feeling in real-time. 

“Passing Storms” portrays the changing weather as metaphor for unpredictable and shifting states of mind. As the residents and visitors move through the hospital courtyards, they see the cloud and rain sculptures subtly change depending on the angle of the light and the color of the sky. 

If robots are plotting to take over the world, they’re starting with Pittsburgh International Airport. And they’re succeeding.

We believe that art empowers us all. It inspires social change. It encourages community dialogue. It is a way that we connect with each other. Cuyahoga Arts & Culture looks forward to showcasing our tremendous cultural assets—and to helping visitors and residents alike find inspiration and beauty during their time in Cleveland for this important political event. 

Like most urbanized parts of the U.S., Boston’s demographics have changed dramatically in the last 30 years and so has tone of conversation. Anyone who attended this year’s Americans for the Arts conference could see and feel the change. 

Barbara Goldstein is an Americans for the Arts member and recipient of the 2016 Public Art Network Award. Find out more about the Americans for the Arts Annual Leadership Arts Awards.

Usually when people ask me what I do and I say “public art planner” a lot of confusing questions follow. Many lay people identify murals and public sculpture as public art; others consider public art to be concerts in the park, painted utility boxes and Cows on Parade ™ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CowParade

I’m here to tell you that, yes, public art is all those things. But most of all, public art is a practice that creates a partnership between artists and stakeholders to create art in the public realm where people can discover it without having to pay admission.

•   5,997 miles driven

•   11 events

•   17 Minnesota Artists

•   8 Communities

•   50 cups of gas station coffee

•   0 flat tires

•   25 fish

Living in a rural, pastoral location can ironically promotes restlessness. One typical requirement about living in a small town and wanting to experience art is that one must travel to IT, whatever it might be.

From a purely business perspective, the arts in general and public art in particular are demonstrated spurs of economic development. This happy reality has proven true in my work as the Principal and sole employee of Prospective Inc., which is the exclusive leasing agent for the 4-million-square-foot office component of Reston Town Center, an internationally-recognized urban mixed-use development located in Reston, Virginia.

Last year, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and Shake Shack joined forces for Summer Rendezvous, a breezy, bright mural on the wall behind Shake Shack’s first Philadelphia location. Edwin Bragg, Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Shake Shack, took a few minutes to talk to me about the partnership.

CRS: What drives Shake Shack’s giving philosophy, both historically and currently?

EB: Shake Shack’s mission is to Stand for Something Good, which means taking care of each other and our communities. Giving back is an essential to connecting to every community that Shake Shack is in. We have a program called Shack Gives Back, a company-wide community program that recognizes Shake Shack employees for volunteering. We also donate with funds, meals at Shake Shack, and more.

On an October afternoon in King County, Washington, a crowd of about fifty threw on their roller skates and attended a roller disco party, complete with bright lights and psychedelic colors. The party wasn’t at a skating rink, however—they had all joined together in a tunnel on one of King County’s biking trails, and were celebrating Ebb & Flow, the new public mural by local artist Kristen Ramirez that covered the tunnel walls and enveloped the disco-goers.

At Bloomberg Philanthropies we recognize the enormous potential of public art to enliven neighborhoods, drive foot traffic to local businesses, bolster tourism, and inspire people to live and work in places identified with creativity. So in October 2014, we launched the Public Art Challenge to support temporary public art projects that catalyze urban growth, contribute to local identity, and promote creativity. In addition to generating exciting work in cities and seeding strong public-private partnerships supporting culture, we hoped the initiative would encourage local governments across the United States to view artists and the arts as resources for addressing civic priorities in real and transformative ways. 

Jessica Cusick retired as the Manager of the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Department on March 3, 2016. Starting the job in 2005 she took a staff of three and grew it into a powerhouse of 21 to serve a city of 90,000 residents. She also created municipal programs through planning, policy, creative communities, public art and artist residencies to bring the work of writers and coders, planners and planters, poets and visual artists free to city audiences.

We were in Oklahoma City and Heather Ahtone of Norman Oklahoma shared a story about the power of Arts And…, a moment when, as she said, “The arts community met a civic need in a creative way.”

Her city, like lots of other places, is growing fast. So fast that traffic has gotten a lot worse in the center. City planners decided to encourage more people to start riding bikes to get around, improving the quality of life for everyone. What happened next? 

CODAworx is a global, online community that is the first of its kind -  serving as an artists' LinkedIn, made for the commissioned art world. We support public art because it is an investment that creates more significant, long-term value for the community. 

CODAworx represents not only artists, but everyone collaborating on private and public art projects: architects, interior designers, fabricators, photographers… and most recently, building developers and a Rotary Club! Our passion at CODAworx lies in bringing the arts community together in one place, connecting them with the resources needed to create amazing art projects, and showcasing those projects to the world.

This year, Arlington Public Art received our seventh PAN Year in Review Award since the award program began in 2000.  We feel honored to be so distinguished. Christian Moeller’s Quill (2014) joins Liquid Pixels by Ned Kahn (2002); Memory Bricks by Winnie Owens-Hart (2005); Cultivus Loci: Suckahanna by Jann Rosen-Queralt (2006);  Flame by Ray King (2007); CO2LED by Jack Sanders, Robert Gay and Butch Anthony (2008); and Echo by Richard Deutsch (2012), our other Year in Review Award winners.

So how did we do it?

The thing I remember most about the start of the performance was the deafening sound of silence.

That was the first unexpected moment during artist and activist Dread Scott’s performance piece with More Art. The crowd pressed forward in anticipation as Scott turned a corner and prepared to advance. The firefighters, prepared to unleash a stream of water against Scott equivalent to a crowd control hose, were at the ready. And the world held its breath.

We live in interesting times. In Canada, Aboriginal rights are becoming a primary part of the political landscape. We are embarking on a long journey to recognize injustice and develop new partnership and governance models. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was a five-year project established to witness the stories and address the harm done by Indian Residential Schools and to set the country on a path of healing. In the spirit of this project, the City of Vancouver established a Year of Reconciliation from June 2013 to June 2014, working in partnership with Reconciliation Canada. 

I can now say that twice en route to a major installation I have looked at the person or people I was bringing with me to help, and said something to the effect of, “the worst thing that can happen is when we get there, we can’t work…”  I should probably stop saying things like this because both times it came true. The first time the problem was resolved by some cable rigging, come-alongs, crawling around a mud puddle and hanging off a small cliff to make it all work. The second time was on the way to install The Rippling Wall.

Over the past few years, the City of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program has expanded the boundaries of its artistic and social practice, exploring the definitions of traditional mural-making and teasing out the nuanced meanings of public art. psychylustro, installed in 2014, was an exploration of an abstract gesture in public space, and a new facet for Mural Arts, challenging us as an institution to get innovative both with conception and implementation.

The email crossed the Atlantic on 9th June 2015. My iPhone chimed its arrival into a gloriously sunny North Yorkshire afternoon, and into a conversation with friends and colleagues in the lowering sun.

“Dear Kit,

Congratulations! Your project ‘Congregation’ was selected and recognized in the recent Americans for the Arts 2015 Public Art Network Year in Review. The project was selected by jurors Peggy Kendellen, Laurie Jo Reynolds, and Ernst C. Wong and will be publicly presented on Thursday, June 11th at the 2015 Public Art & Placemaking Preconference in Chicago…” etc, etc.

What makes a “healthy, vibrant, equitable community” healthy, vibrant, or equitable? As time marches on, what challenges will be presented to that community—to the millions of different communities that exist and overlap in every part of our lives? And how can the arts be a part of pushing past those challenges, empowering change, and creating a brighter future?

Ask an outsider what they know about Iowa, and they may say one of three things, CORN ... HOGS ... and FARMLAND. Yes, Iowa is known for its agricultural bounty.

But visit the world-famous Art Institute of Chicago, and you’ll undoubtedly run into “American Gothic,” a painting universally recognized as a cultural icon — created by Grant Wood, an Iowan.

The explosion in the numbers of artists and arts activities in the 1940s and 1950s left a legacy that continues today, and what may come as a surprise is that in Iowa, the arts serve as an economic driver that attracts companies, creates jobs and grows local and state revenue. Without a doubt, the arts mean business in Iowa.