Public Art

San Francisco Mural

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.

September 1, 2017 - MLive

Utility Box Art

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.

August 21, 2017 - Shelterforce/Rooflines

London Public Art

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.

August 19, 2017 - CityLab

Small Town Art

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.

May 24, 2017 - Next City

Stormwater Infrastructure

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.

May 12, 2017 - The Confluence

Chicago's Wabash Lights Concept Could Expand

An art instillation of colorful LED lights hanging under the L on Wabash looks to grow.

April 27, 2017 - Curbed

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.

February 24, 2017 - The Sydney Morning Herald

Boyle Heights

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.

January 31, 2017 - Shelterforce/Rooflines

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.

August 28, 2016 - NPR

Horse Toy

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.

August 18, 2016 - PlaceShakers

Los Angeles Street

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.

June 9, 2016 - Gizmodo

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.

May 20, 2016 - The Boston Globe

Seattle Bus Rain

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.

May 11, 2016 - CityLab

Shepard Fairey

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.

September 22, 2015 - CityLab

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.

September 2, 2015 - Washington City Paper

Welcome to Detroit

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.

July 15, 2015 - Dean Saitta

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.

January 19, 2015 - MinnPost

Mexico City Street Art

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.

December 14, 2014 - Steven Snell

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.

November 21, 2014 - Penn Institute for Urban Research

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.

September 9, 2014 - Artsblog

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