Public Art

[melwil]

So, what public art exists where you live? Have you got pictures?

I'm working on a grade 7 art unit about public art and I'm interested to know

a)what public art exists around the world?
b)what constitutes public art in different parts of the world?
c)why do cities have public art?


If you have any answers, photos or ideas you can email them to me (melina dot wilson at gmail dot com) , or link me to them, or comment here. Anything would be brilliant

Comments

[quasiradiant.livejournal.com]

hee. i could take my digital camera and take pictures! we've got LOTS in nyc.

[melwil.livejournal.com]

That's exactly the kinds of things I need - we have to put together a resource file, so I'm off to take pictures of traffic signal boxes in Brisbane (we have an art project where they get painted)

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the webpage about applying to paint a council box? I keep planning to make an LJ post about it -- I'm thinking of applying to paint Giant Squid Eats Gotham Building. The site also has photos of all the boxes in Brisbane.

I presume you're going to refer to the mural at Eagle Junction, too?

The fact that we're in the same city makes this a bit redundant.

[melwil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I found that site - I'm going out with a camera at some stage - you know, when I can walk properly again *g*

I'm also going to look at the city, (the mall and King George Square) and Fortitude Valley.

[thecoldacre.livejournal.com]

I'm a sucker for public art. I grew up in Adelaide, and that has some awesome art - more formal, compared to Brisbane, but they've spent years investing in it rather than commissioning pieces left right and centre like Brisbane has been over the last 3-4 years.
Overseas, I've only been to Greece, and that kind of speaks for itself. The beauty of cities like Athens is that with buildings like the Acropolis, they don't need modern public art.

Adelaide has some great sculptures in Rundle Mall - my faves are the pigs eating garbage, and there's also the famous silver balls.
There's also the sculpture garden (my personal childhood favourite) and this thing at the Festival Centre.
My favourite place in Adelaide is the Botanic Gardens - there's a formal Italian garden with classical statues, and two long covered paths with wisteria growing over them. I couldn't find a picture of them in full bloom, only one in winter when it looks remarkably bad, but when they're flowering they are absolutely stunning.


BCC took away my favourite piece of public art in Brisbane, "On This Auspicious Occasion", because they were too cheap to fork out for better quality glass and the cheap stuff kept getting broken by idiots. The top picture on this page is the best I could find. I really miss it; there's some great art around the city but the Queen St Mall is lacking.

[baggers.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, I miss Adelaide so much right now.

[thecoldacre.livejournal.com]

Me too! When I was looking for pics I got so nostalgic. It's such a beautiful city.

[gooberfishbowl.livejournal.com]

I live near Washington DC, so yes, we have scads of public art :) Aside from several free year-round art museams, we also have public sculpture gardens, and occassional art attacks around the area. I was even a participant in one when I was seven: a mural for a playground a few blocks from where I live.

http://www.si.edu/ - Smithsonian Institution (our local batch of free museams)
http://hirshhorn.si.edu/ - The Hirshorn, my favorite
http://www.asia.si.edu/ - Freer Sackler, running a close second, along with the East Building, for which I can't find a website... (It's not called the East Building. That's just what the locals call it).

[tigs.livejournal.com]

My city (Wichita, Kansas) actually has quite a lot of public art:
-http://www.wichita.gov/CityOffices/Park/PublicArt/public_art1.htm
-http://allaboutwichita.com/articles/gerber/douglasavenue01.html (This is the stuff I see every day. The second page of the article has a photo tour of all (most?) of the art pieces.)
-http://webs.wichita.edu/dt/insidewsu/show/article.asp?358 (The horse isn't my favorite one, but it's still very similar.)

Also, the city of Chicago had a huge exhibition of painted cows. They've since spread out all over the country (maybe the world), but it really looked to be a lot of fun while it was going on.
-http://www.chicagotraveler.com/cows_on_parade.htm