Public Art: Change appearance, change destiny

Public art can revolutionize the look, atmosphere, significance and fortunes of a community. Americans for the Arts recognized some good examples for its 2009 Public Art Year in Review. Here are some other cool creative ones:

“I See What You Mean,” by Lawrence Argent at the Colorado Convention Center, Denver 

“Cambier’s Quilt,” by Mark Fuller at the Municipal Parking Garage in Naples, Fla.

“Long Wave” by David Rokeby at Allen Lambert galleria, Toronto

Innovation makes winners of public artworks

Western states including California, Washington and Arizona did well this year in the Americans for the Arts ninth annual Public Art Year in Review selection of the best and most innovative public artworks in the United States  – but Cleveland, Ohio, will be happy to find that it made the list, too.

From 300 entries, independent public-art experts Janet Echelman and Mildred Howard chose 40 works – representing 32 cities in 15 states - worthy of recognition at the 2009 Americans for the Arts annual convention this past weekend in Seattle, which was home to a lot of the winning artworks. The pieces could be either permanent or temporary, but had to be created or unveiled in 2008.  

The artists and commissioning organizations whose pieces were chosen will receive congratulations and letters of recognition from Americans for the Arts President Robert Lynch.

If you click on the Public Art Year in Review hyperlink above, you can get to the pdf that lists the 40 winning artists, their pieces, where they’re located and for whom they were created. To save Clevelanders some time: The winning piece was The Verdant Walk by Toronto artists Peter North and Alissa North of North Design Office, a temporary work commissioned by Cleveland Public Art for Mall B downtown.

The Verdant Walk. Photo courtesy of Cleveland Public Art

The Verdant Walk in daylight. Photo from elaur