Public Art Guide: 8 Examples of Major Public Art Installations

As opposed to street art or other art in public places, public art exists partially due to a sanction by the local government where it is installed. This government recognition also shapes the theme and style of public art. Rather than representing an individual point of view or commercial interest, public art aims to focus on the universal feelings or larger concepts of the public.

Public art is site-specific because accessibility to the public is a necessary component. Even if a public art installation is on private property instead of government-owned, public property, it has to be free and open to the public. From memorials to environmentalist projects, public art is meant to engage people.

Development projects in places like New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Paris, and London have started to take public artworks and public spaces into account. If a new skyscraper is going up, it should provide some kind of public interest to the community.

Government-funded public art programs take a variety of forms depending on the city, location, and general themes it’s addressing. A city may have a sculpture park or individual installations in public squares. There are also plenty of opportunities for public art in more rural areas.

• Ephemeral/non-permanent: This is temporary art meant to fall apart, degrade, or blow away in some fashion. It normally makes some kind of statement about community art and sense of place.
• Installation: This kind of public art takes the site into consideration during the design process. The art in transit stations and other public services is considered installation public art.
• Applied: Murals and sculptures mounted on buildings or other structures are applied public art. They tend to be large scale and highly visible on the street. Murals are often made in tribute to community members.
• Integrated: Pavements, building façades, and landscapes host integrated public art. The artist or design team takes the surface into account and makes the art around what is available, like designing large shapes into grass fields. Examples include bas reliefs and mosaics.
• Stand-alone: These tend to be stand-alone sculptures and large structures that are site-specific, like a public sculpture garden.

All public art shares an openness to public interaction and community engagement. Public art commissions normally work with artists who want to comment on a locale in the public realm.

1. 1. Public art must be accessible to the public. While art museums are occasionally free, many often require a donation or a small ticket fee. Public art, on the other hand, must be in a place where members of the public can easily access it. Public art is something that people can stumble upon in their daily lives and engage with at any time.
2. 2. Public sanction from the arts commission. Visual art that deals with public architecture, design, and construction needs investment and approval from government entities or nonprofit arts organizations. Some of these public programs also fund arts education or performance art in the public.
   
3. 3. Longevity and long-term placement in a location. Although there are non-permanent public art installations, the general purpose of public art is to be a part of the city or town where it’s based. Memorials are specially meant to be long-lasting public art. This means public art materials must be resistant to the elements—stainless steel, concrete, and various other metal and stonework tend to hold up well.
   
4. 4. Planning for the possibility of interactivity. Since so much of public art is meant to withstand the elements, it should also withstand humans. Although interaction can degrade the art over time, many public art programs will renovate and refurbish a piece of public art so people can keep interacting with it. This can serve as education for the artistic process.

Public art has been a feature of major cities since the beginning of the twentieth century, adding sophistication to parks and plazas. In recent decades, many artists have incorporated elements of sustainability into their works.

1. 1. World’s Largest Ball of Paint: An interactive art piece in Alexandria, Indiana, with free admission. Attendees are allowed to add paint to the large ball from paint buckets in the area.
2. 2. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe: In the late 1980s, citizens in Berlin began to raise money for a Holocaust remembrance site. In 1999, the German Parliament (Bundestag) chose Peter Eisenman to construct the memorial, also known as the Holocaust Memorial, and formed a federal foundation to oversee the construction. Today there are 2,711 large concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a field, meant to remind the general public of the incalculable loss.
3. 3. Favela Mosaico: This public art project engaged the whole neighborhood of Vila Cruzeiro in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Together with the Favela Painting organization, residents developed mosaics in the favela as an improvement project.
4. 4. The Seed: This standalone sculpture from Es Devlin hovers above water in Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi. The sculpture is a major representation of the lifecycle of a plant, from seed propagation to full growth. All revenue from ticket sales goes toward funding a mangrove conservation program.
5. 5. Millennium Park: Located in the center of Chicago, this park is a haven for works of art and also has a central concert venue. A silver reflective sculpture called Cloud Gate, also known as “The Bean,” sits in the center of Millennium Park is a local favorite. The park’s green space is designed to serve an environmental purpose.
6. 6. Coit Tower Murals: In 1934, the Civil Works Administration ended up commissioning 25 artists to create murals inside San Francisco’s newly constructed Coit Tower. The murals—which depict life and labor in California during the Great Depression—were part of the Neal Deal and Public Works of Art program.
7. 7. Urban Light: Located outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this public art installation was created by Chris Burden. It features 202 vintage street lamps.
8. 8. Giant Binoculars: Created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Giant Binoculars is a 45-foot high sculpture that’s part of the Chiat/Day office building in Venice, Los Angeles.

Public art is all over the world, from city centers to rural fields. Public artists get to work with community leaders, architects, and designers to create works of art that benefit the community in some way.

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