Making, Commissioning, and Living with Public Art: the View from California

The California Assembly of Local Arts Agencies and Art 501(c)(3) are developing Making, Commissioning, and Living with Public Art: the View from California, a publication that will examine public art from the perspective of the administrators who commission it, the artists who create it, and the communities who live with it. The publication will feature:

  • case studies of public art projects, with analyses of which approaches worked and which strategies were less successful,
     
  • resources for arts administrators: ordinances, budgets, contracts, et cetera,
     
  • resources for artists: sample proposals, how to obtain insurance, guidelines on rights and permissions, et cetera,
     
  • resources for communities: how to work with artists and administrators to obtain rewarding public art.

For more information, please see an overview of work in progress.

Format

The publication will be presented in three different media: paperback book, as an electronic publication in the PDF format, and as an Internet site.

The Market

In November 2001, CALAA and Art 501(c)(3) conducted an informal survey of local arts agencies that posed three questions about a survey of public art:

  1. Have you heard of a similar project?
     
  2. How beneficial would your organization find such a survey?
     
  3. Would representatives of your organization be willing to participate in the public art survey?

The survey results pointed out a number of issues and concerns the CALAA and Art 501(c)(3) publication will address, but no one resource featuring such a broad overview, or from a California perspective.

The Next Steps

Before actual work on the publication begins, CALAA and Art 501(c)(3) will:

  • conduct additional research to refine the scope of the project,
     
  • assemble an advisory board to provide guidance,
     
  • solicit funding.

Comments? Please email Art 501(c)(3) director David Glenn Rinehart.

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