Blog Posts for public art network

Thank you to the many people who have been blog contributors to, and readers of ArtsBlog over the years. ArtsBlog has long been a space where we uplifted stories from the field that demonstrated how the arts strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically; where trends and issues and controversies were called out; and advocacy tools were provided to help you make the case for more arts funding and favorable arts policies.

As part of Americans for the Arts’ recent Strategic Realignment Process, we were asked to evaluate our storytelling communications platforms and evolve the way we share content. As a result, we launched the Designing Our Destiny portal to explore new ways of telling stories and sharing information, one that is consistent with our longtime practice of, “No numbers without a story, and no stories without a number.”

As we put our energy into developing this platform and reevaluate our communications strategies, we have put ArtsBlog on hold. That is, you can read past blog posts, but we are not posting new ones. You can look to the Designing Our Destiny portal and our news items feed on the Americans for the Arts website for stories you would have seen in ArtsBlog in the past.

ArtsBlog will remain online through this year as we determine the best way to archive this valuable resource and the knowledge you’ve shared here.

As ever, we are grateful for your participation in ArtsBlog and thank you for your work in advancing the arts. It is important, and you are important for doing it.


Ms. Patricia L. Watts

CLOUD HOUSE, Springfield, Missouri

Posted by Ms. Patricia L. Watts, Aug 15, 2017 0 comments


Ms. Patricia L. Watts

This was the first ever permanent interactive public sculpture created in the City of Springfield (population 167,319), and with this size budget. Not only did the work provoke conversations around “exploring the local, questions of ecology and dissecting the systems that make up our everyday experiences,” Cloud House has also provoked conversations about the power of art. 

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Daniela Perez Frias

The Easy Way Is Not Always the Best Way

Posted by Daniela Perez Frias, Jan 19, 2018 0 comments


Daniela Perez Frias

At Americans for the Arts, we are always looking for stories that demonstrate the transformative power of the arts and how the arts can impact people's lives in positive ways. When I was tasked with creating a video about a statue in Richmond, Virginia, what I had first thought would be a simple project about a public art piece became much more complicated than I had ever imagined. But thank goodness for complications, because I am so grateful to have been able to share the complex story of the monument to Maggie L. Walker, a civil rights pioneer and the first woman to be memorialized as a statue in the city of Richmond. 

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Michelle Angela Ortiz

“Familias Separadas”

Posted by Michelle Angela Ortiz, Aug 19, 2016 0 comments


Michelle Angela Ortiz

Public art can serve as a platform to educate, create awareness, and to inspire action. As an artist working in communities for more than 15 years, I believe that when we decide to write and tell our own stories and create the images that are true reflections of who we decide we are—those are revolutionary acts.

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Laura Kochman

Reflection, Representation, and “14 Movements”

Posted by Laura Kochman, Aug 15, 2017 0 comments


Laura Kochman

Artist Mat Tomezsko’s 2016 project with Mural Arts Philadelphia, 14 Movements: A Symphony in Color and Words, started out as a beautification request from the 2016 Democratic National Convention Host Committee, but it became so much more. Tomezsko created a wash of color along the median of Broad Street, stretching out languidly over 14 city blocks, a full mile-long mural marking a major transit corridor. 14 Movements created opportunities for reflection on the diversity of experience in Philadelphia, the very real, rich, inner lives that unfold every day in simple journeys down the street.

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Ms. Ellyn Parker

Creating Community and Connection through Creating Public Art

Posted by Ms. Ellyn Parker, Jan 23, 2018 0 comments


Ms. Ellyn Parker

When I started working on the Maggie Walker project, I had no idea of the magnitude and importance of the project, nor its national significance and impact it would have upon our community. Now when I walk by her statue, I see community members feeling connections to each other and sensing the investment made into this place of memorial created with public art. My own motivations to work in the field of public art stem from the compelling need to create more beauty, joy, and connection in the world. In using the arts to tell our stories, and in the process of working together as a group to make a project happen, we find community connections as beautiful as the pieces of art themselves. 

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Ms. Barbara S. Goldstein

Seven Reasons to Become a Public Art Leader

Posted by Ms. Barbara S. Goldstein, May 31, 2016 2 comments


Ms. Barbara S. Goldstein

Barbara Goldstein is an Americans for the Arts member and recipient of the 2016 Public Art Network Award. Find out more about the Americans for the Arts Annual Leadership Arts Awards.

Usually when people ask me what I do and I say “public art planner” a lot of confusing questions follow. Many lay people identify murals and public sculpture as public art; others consider public art to be concerts in the park, painted utility boxes and Cows on Parade ™ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CowParade

I’m here to tell you that, yes, public art is all those things. But most of all, public art is a practice that creates a partnership between artists and stakeholders to create art in the public realm where people can discover it without having to pay admission.

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