Americans for the Arts

The author, an artist, discusses his ideas about art in public places in the context of his own work. He discusses specific projects and proposals of his work in Las Vegas, Nevada, San Diego, California, St. Louis, Missouri, and Carson City, Nevada.

The author discusses the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a work of public art and its impact in the context of its setting among other monumental sculptures on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Contemporary public art is still in the process of defining its artistic and legal identity. Indeed to juxtapose the terms public and artis a paradox. Art is often said to be the individual inquiry of the sculptor or painter, the epitome of self-expression and vision that may challenge conventional wisdom and values. The term public encompasses a reference to the community, the social order, self-negation: hence the paradox of linking the private and the public in a single concept. A goal of any general or jurisprudential theory concerning government sponsorship or ownership of art in the

American towns and cities have long been studded with public art - most of which is commemorative statuary honoring the heroic dead, or an historic event, or personifying some abstract ideal such as Truth. Typically, the subject and purpose of the commissioned work has been as much a matter of prior public agreement as has been the intended style of its execution. Artists were favored if - and because - they could express the common will and taste. In those cases where controversy has erupted - e.g. over a statue of George Washington clad in a toga or an expressionistic portrait of John F.

The author, an artist, discusses various art in public places projects in terms of public expectations and traditional ideas about the role and purpose of art.

The author discusses the work of the Committee on the Visual Arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and how the Hayden Gallery of MIT and its campus have been used as a laboratory for art in public places projects.

Since 1973, the city of Seattle has maintained an active art-in-public-places program that commissions new work or purchases existing artworks by contemporary artists. More than 800 artworks have been added to the city's collection in the past decade, with funding supplied from the city's One Percent for Art ordinance, the National Endowment for the Arts Art in Public Places grants, and private donations. Both temporary and permanent projects have been explored, as well as partnerships with downtown businesses and with other government agencies.

Over the last fifteen years, architect Cesar Pelli has collaborated with painters and sculptors on at least three distinct projects. From 1970 to 1973, as architect of the Commons and Courthouse Center in Columbus, Indiana, Pelli worked with Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely. In 1981, for the New York Architectural League's centennial exhibition, Collaboration: Artists and Architecture Pelli joined painter William Bailey. Currently, as the design architect of the World Financial Center of Battery Park City in lower Manhattan, he is working with artist Scott Burton and Siah Armajani in designing

Excerpt reprinted and condensed from the book Place Makers: Public Art That Teels You Where You Are, published by Hastings House Publisher, copyright 1981 by The Townscape Institute, Inc.

Creative Time, Inc. is one such experimental organization, which has won wide recognition for pioneering and supporting emerging artists in the creation of provocative and innovative art in public spaces throughout New York City. Our works and events take place in unexpected areas that generally lack cultural amenities but possess architectural, historic, and artistic value. We do not own any space, but we move freely about the city, using both indoor and outdoor sites that have been vacated, abandoned, or forgotten. We have presented exhibitions in vacant office lobbies and storefronts,

The Saint Paul Cultural Garden is a full-color book of essays, photographs, maps, and poetry. It tells the story of a public art project that combined a variety of disciplines and media among different artists in honor of cultural difference in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota. Dedicated in 1993, the Saint Paul Cultural Garden provided a discussion amongst the participants which brought underlying issues of power and racism within our common democratic history to the surface. (press release)

This book recounts the Art-in-Architecture Program of the General Services Administration (GSA). This program has been responsible for the placement of hundreds of artworks in federal buildings across the nation. The author tells the story behind these works, from artist's concept to installation. He describes the commissioning of each artist, the fabrication of the works, their critical reception, and the public controversy surrounding many of them. Include black-and-white as well as color photos and illustrations.

This publication illustrates an exhibition held at the Doris Freedman Gallery in May 1982 that recorded the activities of the Public Art Fund. Displayed are photographs of selected permanent installations and of more ephemeral events--wall murals, billboards and outdoor sculptures--mainly in Manhattan, by artists as estimable as Anuszkiewicz, Bearden, di Suvero, Haring, Katz, Nevelson, and Noguchi.

This publication provides a description of public art projects in Arizona. These projects demonstrate a variety of models which integrate public art into community design and infrastructure that can be adapted by both small and large communities.

Article 83 of the Constitution of New Hampshire includes phrases that speak directly to all of us who are concerned with the cultural health of our state: