Art in Publics' Spaces
Date
2014
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Thesis
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Award
Language
eng
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Abstract
Art in Publics' Spaces examines why individuals or groups actively resist public art. Previous scholars answered similar questions with specific practices for organizing successful and democratically run projects, rather than answering why people react the way that they do. I show how public art controversies are about identity groups asserting themselves to maintain power over public spaces. By determining the identity groups, people brought together by a common mutually identifiable aspect of their identities, invested in a given location and showing them respect, artists and organizers of public art can minimize controversy while executing projects with more artistic freedom. This thesis includes case studies of public art projects by three contemporary American public art organizations. Each organization faced controversy and arguably overcame it. In each controversial case, the issues can be traced back to an identity group or groups that felt invested in the space where public art was going to be installed, but also felt that the project did properly not acknowledged that investment. In each successful end result, I show how all invested identity groups were respected. Artists and public art organizers must consider potential public art sites as places where people have already invested meaning rather than blank canvases ready for paint. Organizers have to find who those people are and what the site means to them. Similarly, organizers have to be prepared to use a variety of methods to respect what already exists at those sites. No single method is a best fit in all cases. For some projects, that may mean that everyone on the block has a say in the design and helps paint the mural. With others, it may mean simply getting the property owner's permission and painting something that brings them business. The process may or may not be democratic. "Difficult" public art with maximum artistic freedom and minimal controversy can be successful as long as there is mutual respect cultivated by identifying and respecting the identity groups invested in a given site.