Arlington County, located just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. in Northern Virginia, has officially hosted a public art program since 2000. But the program got its informal start with the work Dark Star Park by Nancy Holt in Rosslyn, which was commissioned by Arlington County working with local developer Joseph Kaempfer in 1979.

In 2000, Arlington County formally adopted a Public Art Policy and in 2004 approved its first Public Art Master Plan. Cultural Affairs staff member Angela Adams, who developed the Plan with consultant team Todd Bressi, Jennifer McGregor, and Brian Harner, became the Public Art Administrator. In 2002, the Program hired its first public art projects curator. In June of 2007, I took over that position.

Colleagues ask me what the difference is between a public art projects manager and a public art projects curator, wondering if we really all are curators. When I Googled the definition of “curator”—such a modern thing to do—I found many descriptions but they all refer to a curator as a person charged with the procurement, care and research of a collection, usually in a museum.

That is what we do for Arlington County. We procure by commissioning site-specific work, working with national and local artists. We care for the collection by first selecting and placing works that that are appropriate for a chosen site and can be maintained at not too high a cost to the public. And we research by determining what works would augment our collection and provide a substantial benefit to the community. We aim to create a high-quality aesthetic experience with each work and, collectively, to create an overarching impact that reverberates throughout the program.

As curator of the Program, my main objective is to create a series of public art pieces that have an identity of their own, that function as a collection, and that reflect the nature and characteristics of the community. The goal is for our Program to be known for its innovative projects which stand out for their relationship to our community, helping to shape a collective identity, reflect our concerns and perform a role in placemaking.

Innovation and experimentation are hard to achieve with permanent public art alone. The lead time and maintenance needs for a permanent work of art limits the opportunity for experimentation. This is why we have focused on creating temporary public art project as interventions. A recent work we commissioned was three performances of Drift, an existing dance piece by the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, choreographed by Cassie Meador. The performances  were staged at the Arlington County Court House Farmers Market and the work reflected on the connections between food and its relationship to the local community. We are planning to mount the Urban Song Line Project by Dutch artist Allard van Hoorn this fall. The work is a collaboration between an artist and a skateboarder--a physical investigation of the interaction between the public and private domain.

Assistant Curator Geoffrey Aldridge and I work closely with our curatorial colleagues at Artisphere (a new cultural center slated to open in Rosslyn this fall 2010) and the Arlington Art Center. This allows us to collaborate on creating an overall artistic and vision for the County, as different projects are organized by our three Programs and institutions.
 
There are several legendary curators in the field of temporary public art presenting, most notably for me is Mary Jane Jacob. Each have their own approach, yet all public art curators necessarily rely upon different formats and methods than their counterparts at museums and other institutions. What’s most unique —and challenging—is the site-specific nature of the public art mission. Working in the public domain, curators and their artists must consider the current status and function of art and constantly rethink the relationship between art and the audience, taking into account various cultural demands and needs.

We are confronted with a rapidly changing world and environment. For public art to remain relevant, curators and administrators must ponder where the field needs to be in ten years. We need to expand the existing visual idiom that runs from 19th Century monuments and architectural enhancements to today’s integrated approach of urban design and planning.

Public art is a narrative and, at its best, curators can tell the story of a community, its history and aspirations.