Glossary: Public Art

Public Art

• The term public art refers to art that is in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property or whether it has been purchased with public or private money.
  (source: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/public-art )

• Public art is often site-specific, meaning it is created in response to the place and community in which it resides. Though an asset to the community, the development and management of public art can be a complex process. Learn here what public art is, why it is important to a community, how it is developed and created, and view a case study that showcases the positive impact public art can have on a community.
  (source: https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-topic/public-art)

• Public art is not an art “form.” Its size can be huge or small. It can tower fifty feet high or call attention to the paving beneath your feet. Its shape can be abstract or realistic (or both), and it may be cast, carved, built, assembled, or painted. It can be site-specific or stand in contrast to its surroundings. What distinguishes public art is the unique association of how it is made, where it is, and what it means. Public art can express community values, enhance our environment, transform a landscape, heighten our awareness, or question our assumptions. Placed in public sites, this art is there for everyone, a form of collective community expression. Public art is a reflection of how we see the world – the artist’s response to our time and place combined with our own sense of who we are.
  (source: https://www.associationforpublicart.org/what-is-public-art/)

• On Public Art and Confederate Monuments:
  ”According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are over 1,500 Confederate monuments and memorials in 31 states across the United States, including areas that were not part of the Confederacy. Over 700 of these monuments are on government-owned sites. The existence of these monuments, and their locations, creates a narrative of value and official support that can be problematic.

  Art on the public square carries great meaning. Such sculptures often represent the culture of a community and are seen as vessels for what we choose to honor and make permanent. To many, Confederate monuments glorify inequality, white supremacy, racial discrimination, and bigotry. To others, they reflect a conservative desire for the reinstatement of white nationalism, which they feel has been nullified by demographic and policy change.

  Most of these monuments were commissioned long after the end of the Civil War as part of an ongoing so-called “Lost Cause” movement to re-write history, and nearly 200 Confederate monuments in the United States were commissioned on or after 1960, arguably in reaction to the black civil rights movements of the early- and mid-20th century. In fact, as many as 35 of these monuments have been commissioned since 2010.

  All public artwork, whether controversial or not, is at its most impactful when it is being considered honestly. Context, origin, and the feelings of the community must be part of an open dialogue and, ultimately, a community choice. The illegal removal of these monuments or the quashing of dialogue by government edict, or by violence, disempowers the community and dampens the innate power of public art to spark dialogue, change, and community healing…

  These monuments, and their long tenure in the public square, are symptoms of larger issues of systemic racism and white privilege that pervade far beyond these statues; public art reflects and makes permanent our deepest beliefs, both good and bad.”
  (https://www.americansforthearts.org/news-room/arts-mobilization-center/statement-on-the-intersection-of-the-arts-history-and-community-dialogue)

---

Related Terms:

---

Related Features: