Association for Public Art to Receive Public Art Network Award on June 12

Award to be Presented at Americans for the Arts Convention in Chicago

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

This year, Americans for the Arts is honoring the Association for Public Art (aPA) with the Public Art Network Award. Given annually since 2003, the award honors innovative contributions to, and exemplary commitment and leadership in, public art.

Founded in 1872, aPA (formerly Fairmount Park Art Association) is the nation's first private nonprofit organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning. Today, aPA commissions, preserves, promotes, and interprets public art in Philadelphia. They work with artists, communities, and civic leaders to make encounters with art a part of everyday life, creating a Museum Without Walls™ that is free and accessible to everyone. Working closely with city agencies, aPA is a central resource and contributor to Philadelphia’s enduring reputation as an important place to view and experience the evolution of public art. Through aPA’s ongoing acquisitions and temporary installations, interactive public programs and special events, publications, website, and social media, Philadelphians and visitors are invited to experience civic spaces enlivened by artists and art; to discover the city’s vast collection of public art; and to intimately engage with a shared cultural legacy. 

The aPA contributes to the ecology of the region’s cultural community by maintaining and expanding Philadelphia’s preeminent outdoor sculpture collection, including masterworks by Alexander Milne Calder, Alexander Stirling Calder, Daniel Chester French, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens; modern sculptures by renowned artists Barbara Hepworth, Jacques Lipchitz, Henry Moore, and Isamu Noguchi; and contemporary works by Siah Armajani, Mark di Suvero, Rafael Ferrer, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Pepón Osorio, Roxy Paine, Jody Pinto, and Martin Puryear. From its inception, aPA has created opportunities for artists to respond to the issues of their time while redefining public space, encouraging audience engagement and interaction, and setting standards for stewardship that support the tradition and importance of art in the public realm.
 
The aPA and other honorees will be presented their awards at the Americans for the Arts 2015 Annual Convention in Chicago during the Opening Plenary session on Friday, June 12, 2015, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. 
 
For more information on aPA, visit associationforpublicart.org.
 
To read more about other Leadership Award honorees at this year's Annual Convention, see the press release.