The Public Art Fund returns to Rockefeller Center after a break of five years since Chris Burden's "What my Dad Gave Me". Ugo Rodinone's stone sculptures should be acknowledged as "real art" by the public. Installation photos on the Public Art Fund Facebook page. HUMAN NATURE opens on April 23, 2013 and runs until June 7. Since 1998, Public Art Fund and Tishman Speyer have collaborated … [Read more...]
How to Think about Public Art
How to think about public art? Do you just keep doing the same thing? Big art? Architectural intimacy? Site-specific narrative? Locally responsive? Internationally, public art has been institutionalized as the founder's dreamed in the 1960 and 1970s. Big - intimate - narrative - responsive. Most importantly, appreciated by a small, but growing … [Read more...]
Public Art as Science Project
MOMA and PS1 prepare the public for the "Watersfalls" later this month in NYC. The the scaffolding has been constructed under the Brooklyn bridge. Photo taken on May 26. From the Bay Area and Boston emerge artworks that are mainly science projects overlaid with pretty colors so they can be called "art". The interaction is fun for ten minutes and we like to take new visitors as they will … [Read more...]
Starting Over Again
Returning to New York City after a 20-year journey in Seattle and South Florida. New York taught me how to think art. Psychologically, NYC has changed dramatically. Signs in the subway remind parents to keep baby carriages off the escalator. Street territory has been reapportioned for small plazas to hangout or walk more … [Read more...]
Public Buyers of Public Art
On April 11 in North Carolina, Glenn Harper, Editor of Sculpture Magazine and Bill Thompson, Editor of Landscape Architecture, and I meet to kick off the "Public Art 360" Conference. Click Here to Attend. In the next few weeks, I will publish some of my letters to Harper and Thompson in preparation for the dialogue. Once in my life, I gave the same ten minute talk back … [Read more...]
Knitters beat MGM Mirage in Public Art Media Blitz
At the end of last week, two public art projects competed for media attention in the USA. In the small town of Yellow Springs, Ohio, a few local women knitted a sweater for ONE tree during a winter day. Any volunteer knitter could climb the eight-foot ladder and add her wrap to the tree trunk or limb. In Las Vegas, two of world's largest resort and gaming corporations announced a $40 million … [Read more...]
New Urbanism in Memphis and Atlanta
Twice I read Derek Merrill & Beau B. Beza's essay in Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media. The writers utilize the concept of the "screen" to explore Atlantic Station development in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlantic Station is a environmental urban brownfield redevelopment and reclamation of the 100-year-old Atlantic Steel Mill requiring the removal of 9,000 dump truck loads of contaminated … [Read more...]
Spring 2008 Public Art and Design Conferences
NEW ORLEANS "Next American City" Explores New Orleans Free SYMPOSIUM:Sparking Creativity: Investing in Entrepreneurship and Human Capital Post-Katrina, Thursday, March 6, 2008, 6-8 pm A small business is not just a building. It's an investment in a person who is willing to invest back into their community. As post-Katrina New Orleans struggles to rebuild itself, we ask the question, What is there … [Read more...]
Surprise and Design in Public Works
Imagine an argument about the value of surprising public art and well-designed public space. Interesting that I feel the need to add "well-designed" to public space. Public space ALWAYS exists so it MUST BE qualified. Public art is always an optional ADDITION and very, very rare when compared to the quantity of public space. [Perhaps I am wrong and the value of the gigantic ether of nearly … [Read more...]
Public Art in the Job Market
Not to reveal too much, but I typed "public art" into the job search site, Indeed. The public art field and civic leaders have under-estimated the role of public art in job recruitment, especially among doctors and nurses. Many medical recruiters highlight the excellent quality of a city's pedestrian environment by listing public art. I wonder if the Creative Cities researchers have linked up … [Read more...]
Public Art in the Shopping Mall
The Aventura Mall, 10 miles north of Miami Beach, is building a contemporary public art collection. Jorge Pardo and Lawrence Weiner made unique installation and Julian Opie set-up his LED walking man and woman. See the Aesthetic Grounds Visual Essays for More Downloadable Pictures Higher rent shopping arcades, centers and malls have been commissioning artworks since they were invented in the 18th … [Read more...]
New Town: Ave Maria, Florida
Ave Maria, Florida, is the first 21st Century town created in the "middle of nowhere" with a Catholic oratory and university at its heart. The future 11,000 houses, townhouses and apartments will consume the 5000 acres (2000 hectares) "nowhere" of farms and wetlands and force the future residents to drive miles to work and the local cities. The final result will be 5 houses to the acre - very … [Read more...]