I admit it. I have looked down on arts and crafts street fairs as a kind of subspecies of the artworld. The fairs are fully acceptable as cultural phenomena if composed of truly local makers, especially with ethnic or migrant identity. But not acceptable as a place for the educated artist as was defined historically in the 20th century by New York museums and galleries. Images from Gasparilla … [Read more...]

One of the best things about writing on Public Art and Public Space is the lack definitions. The field has no rules as to what is aesthetically successful. No rules on what kind of creations are included. No rules on which art centers get to officially generate the new and interesting. As my wife and I have attempted to sell my wife's painting at an arts festival this weekend, I leave to you … [Read more...]

On March 1, 2007, the City of Miami Beach establishes the 6th, 7th, or ? arts district in the Miami Metro Area. CANDO, Cultural Arts Neighborhood District Overlay, is centered on the Convention Center, home of Arts Basel. Other institutions include: New World Symphony, Bass Museum, Miami City Ballet, Jackie Gleason Theater, the Miami Beach Botanical Garden and Art Center South Florida. Lincoln … [Read more...]

Tim. Thanks for the thoughts about Benjamin Bufano from San Francisco. I just threw out the idea of vernacular public art without understanding where it is going. Vernacular is something that appears to sprout from the place and feels so at home that most travelers ignore it. But art requires a little uncomfortable sand in the face. Your definition of vernacular is to merge with the life of the … [Read more...]

Touching on an idea that demands more examination, should we start to think about public art as vernacular? Do we commission so much public art that cultural integration should be prioritized in the same manner of vernacular architecture? As a starting point, check out Lincoln Road, a pedestrians-only roadway in Miami Beach. Lincoln Road is packed with cafes, tables, awnings, signs, lights and … [Read more...]

The streetscape - sidewalks, trees, benches, cafes, building facades - is the world's number urban renewal project. How many thousands of miles or kilometers are rebuilt each year to invigorate neighborhoods here, there and almost everywhere? As with all global movements, the differences can be minute. Yet, every city declares their streetscape a strict response to local culture making the … [Read more...]

In some chairs in some room in New York City in 1980s, Kyong Park and I discussed a guerilla project to block out all the street signs in a section of Manhattan. In a few hours could we paint over every name: 33rd, 32nd, 31st.....? Would a traffic jam ensue in the morning? Would the government of New York respond like an emergency or just let it be until the streets department replaced them in … [Read more...]

Domus Magazine in Italy thought the Jinhua Architecture Park was so hip, that they published the park before anything was really complete in July 2006. "a+u" magazine in Tokyo published the suburban park of architectural follies in December 2006. Herzog & de Meuron Cataloguing a creative moment in architecture has rarely been done outside of temporary world fairs or biennales. The park is … [Read more...]

"Danger, Will Robinson" squawked the robot. Now, I walk into the danger of critiquing something I have never seen, but many others have - the Sleepwalkers video projections by Doug Aitken on MoMA in NYC. But projecting yourself into the reality of some other place is a primary function of this Blog and is the virtual/physical internal struggle of the Internet itself. This entry is caused by … [Read more...]

Surfing the web for five years as a public art consultant, I noticed that nothing exists that keeps interested parties informed on public art or public space that is not pure reporting or academic analysis. Where was the something in the middle - arts journal criticism? Something that focuses on the visual? Something that understands the silly institutional traps? I live in Florida. The sun … [Read more...]

On January 29, 2007, Marvin Finn died at the age of 89 in Louisville, Kentucky. I have never heard of Finn before. A notice came to me via Google's daily alert. His obituary included one "public art" project made during his 86th year. In the Courier-Journal, Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson praised Finn's legacy, calling him "one of Louisville's greatest folk artists." I love this statement. … [Read more...]