Public Art
Friday Eye Candy: Portraits Made Public—For Community Awareness and Placemaking
The "Inside Out Project: We Are Edison" installation posted large portraits of residents in the Kalamazoo neighborhood of Edison on the side of a building. The exhibition invites the community to take a look at itself.
Could Public Art on Utility Boxes Displace Communication?
There will be important functions in public space that are not always “art” whose value is not in proportion to their prettiness.
Trafalgar Square Shows How to Reuse Pedestals Where Statues Once Stood
Baltimore tore down its Confederate monuments, now they have an opportunity to showcase the city's artists.
Activating Artists as an Urban Resource
Planning and art don't traditionally mix, but that's changing. Embedded at NYC's Department of Design and Construction, artist Mary Miss envisions public art as an infrastructural aid.
Using Public Art to Make Sense of Wastewater Infrastructure
The city of San Jose and designers from the University of California, Davis have completed a community-led design process to raise awareness about the connections between the kitchen, sewers, and the environment.
Chicago's Wabash Lights Concept Could Expand
An art instillation of colorful LED lights hanging under the L on Wabash looks to grow.
Friday Funny: A Bus Stop With Funk in Melbourne
"All aboard to funkytown," writes Chloe Booker, transporting readers to a time and a place where the trains had soul and the bells had bottoms.
A Community Planning Process—Even a Good One—Is Not Enough
Simply inviting residents to participate in design charrettes or a community planning process does not mitigate the significant loss they feel as they witness the physical destruction of their homes and lived history.
Faced With Declining Population, Japanese Village Is Repopulated By Scarecrows
The population of Nagoro, Japan has declined in recent years from 300 to just 30 people. Local artist Tsukimi Ayano has populated the village with scarecrows to replace some of the familiar community figures who are now gone.
Horsey! Grassroots Public Art Connects People, Past, and Present
Never underestimate the power of whimsy in the built environment. A genuine and unconditional spirit of welcome and inclusion can be found in the most unexpected forms of participatory art.
Artist to Help Los Angeles Meet Vision Zero Goal
LADOT’s first artist-in-residence will engage the city’s many subcultures, and its lively art scene, in his effort to improve pedestrian safety.
Friday Eye Candy: See Boston's Invisible Poems
The "Raining Poetry" art installation hides poetry in plain sight—the words of poets like Langston Hughes are stenciled on sidewalks around Boston and only revealed when water is added.
Art at Seattle Bus Stops Only Appears When It's Raining
Seattle celebrates a transit project with public art that plays to the city’s strength: rain.
Street Artist Shepard Fairey Tackles Detroit
After billionaire landlord Dan Gilbert commissioned a mural, less-legal works in Fairey's style began showing up around the city. Detroit's case against the artist brings gentrification's ironies into focus.
The Lost History of D.C.'s Murals
Washington City Paper creates a record of the many murals that have been lost to new construction and shifting demographics in neighborhoods around Washington, D.C.
Public Art and the Urban Experience
A retrospective of a billboard art exhibition at the 2013 Biennial of the Americas on the occasion of the 2015 Biennial's kick-off implicates an excellent model of citizen engagement and possibly some lessons for civic leaders and urban planners.
How to Turn Boring Utility Boxes into Public Art
Cities around the country have been making it easier to decorate mundane utility boxes into something more colorful and representative of the neighborhoods they serve.
Nature and Art: A Christmas Plea for Cities
I wrote an urbanist Christmas wish list last week for Fast Forward Weekly. I figured I'd elaborate on one of my wishes for weedy nature and public art: disturbance oriented art.
Reflections on Urban Public Art
Ken Lum, Professor in the School of Design, the University of Pennsylvania and Penn IUR Faculty Fellow, writes about the promise—and pitfalls—of urban public art today.
On the Future of Public Art
Public art can be personal, political, grandly scaled, or small in ambition. And, yes, there's a "new wave" of public art to be found in yard bombing, flash mobs, and tactical urbanism. Find out what the experts say about the future of public art.
Pagination
City of Yakima
City of Auburn
Baylands Development Inc.
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Town of Zionsville
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.