the artist creating work after the building is already designed or built , or for an existing site . At the other end of the spectrum is when an artist is part of the design team and works alongside architects , landscape architects , and engineers to determine how artwork is best incorporated into the project . This approach often yields far-ranging impacts on the project that go beyond the aesthetic or decorative . Public art incorporated into the landscape follows a similar pattern as that for the built environment : historically decorative or aesthetic , such as a sculpture in a park , evolving to be more site specific , eventually landing at the transformation of the elements of landscape to be the art self , perhaps the ultimate expression of site specific .
There is a growing recognition that public art can have a more direct role in the transformation of spaces beyond the aesthetic and can positively impact the health , economy , and well being of a community . In the last few years the concept of creative placemaking has garnered an enormous amount of attention from both the urban planning and art worlds , and attracted investment from government and philanthropy . Creative placemaking is a term that encompasses a broad array of projects that share one main element : bringing the tools of artists , artwork , public art , and creative approaches to urban planning aimed at transforming communities . While creative placemaking has garnered much attention and support , some critics note that evidence of the positive community impact is difficult to quantify . Especially if the intent is aesthetic , the result might be highly subjective . However if the intent is functional or instrumental to another goal , say enhancing foot traffic in a district , then the role of public art is instrumental to other public aims , such as improving the business climate or attracting investment to an area .
New Roles for Public Art Creative practice , where the intent is to produce a public benefit aimed at wider social justice issues is often called “ social practice .” That is , the art work or
creative process is not necessarily an end in itself , but rather is a tool to help achieve other public goods such as enhanced community health or public safety . The City of Boston was recently awarded a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts to explore how artists engaged in social practice can become the basis for a new way of thinking about public art . The intent is to bring the creative problem solving approaches of the social practice artist into municipal government agencies in the hopes of achieving new ways of doing things that are more effective , more creative , and deliver better results for the public . In this case the public art is not about producing things , but rather about producing change .
The project is called Boston AIR — for “ artists in residence ” and was inspired by several compelling precedents . In Seattle , percent for art in public works often involves an artist in residence in a public agency at the beginning of capital planning process who conceives the role of public art in the project and then lays out the long range strategy for achieving it . Many studies document the role that the arts can play in healing returning veterans and re-connecting socially isolated senior citizens . Our concept for Boston AIR is that potentially everything that the city does can benefit from involving artists in the process . Our pilot program by design will involve half human services and half built environment agencies . The intent is to move beyond the paradigm of public art or percent for art as “ one place-one project ” and to think holistically about how we can be creative in achieving the goals of the entire city .
Julie Burros is the Chief of Arts and Culture for the City of Boston . She also oversees the Mayor ’ s Offi ce of Arts and Culture under which the Boston Art Commission operates . The Boston Art Commission reviews and issues permits for all public art , both permanent and temporary , on public land in the City of Boston .
* Editors Note : The term “ percent for art : refers to a program , often a city ordinance , where some percentage of the project cost is placed on large scale development projects in order to fund and install public art .
Boston Society of Landscape Architects Fieldbook
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