What is Public Art?

This morning we are researching what public art actually is. We wanted to find some books and artists who have created similar exhibitions.

I have found that public art is described as 'sculpture in the open air' and 'art in public places'. It's purpose is to be freely accesible by all members of the public. It can be permanent or temporary and hopefully will be interactive and stimulating.

"It has been claimed that public art is a cultural investment, vital to the economic recovery of many cities, attracting companies, adding to land values, creating employment. It is said to contribute to local distinctiveness and create a sense of place or regional identity."

Public Art People, Projects, Projects, ADAMS, Eileen, 1997, Page 7

I think our Make Your Mark: Your Museum piece, resembles a great example of how public art can be used to contribute to local distictiveness, by gathering people's ideas of what museum means to them. Our piece will be challenging peoples pre-conceptions of 'museum' by showing what the public and overall picture of the puzzling question of 'what does museum mean to you?'

I think it is important to understand that everyone may interpret a piece of art differently. Jess has just found an extract from a book, describing that public art can become problematic if many other people do not understand the meaning of our exhibit. I think it will be important to provide very concrete ideas of what this project is about and what it's purpose is. People will interpret 'museum' differently, making great use of diversity, but it will work well if everyone has a clear idea of what is intended by this piece. We would educate the public with this via a Make Your Mark website (hopefully there is as computer in the museum accessible to the public) that would include all the information that we share with the museum. We want this project to be completely transparent as if something includes members of the public, they are entitiled to have access to all the information regarding it. It would be good to have a video of us (the artists) talking about the project, on the website. From my experience, I find it very enjoyable watching video clips of the artists talking about their work.