Art in public places is said to inspire pride and interest in one’s community, and the installations themselves often become landmarks, points of curiosity and cohesion, attracting people to sit on, look at, lean against, admire and to share by Instagram. Many cities across the U.S. have public art programs that are meant to beautify locations, honor famous citizens, mark historical moments of importance. They are physical structures that create a common space that everyone from all socioeconomic levels can appreciate and access.
Artist Soo Sunny Park created the work in the top photo, “Molten Swing” honoring Kansas City’s jazz pianist, Bennie Moten, said, “Art is about communication, reaching other people who might come from very different backgrounds. We put some art in museums, which is great. People show up to engage with, communicate with, the art, the artists, and each other. Public art works differently. We are going about our everyday business and then we encounter something, maybe unexpectedly, that makes us think. It reshapes the world we are in at that moment, and we carry that with us through our day. We make appointments to talk to each other, in meetings, at cafes, and so on. That is what museums are like. We decide we want to engage with artwork and go to a place that is built for doing that. Public art is like the unplanned, unexpected encounter. All of a sudden, we are thinking about ourselves and how we fit into the world a little differently because of what we met along the way.”
Torkwase Dyson’s Akua is a large, open pavilion with an immersive multi-channel soundscape. Visitors may enter and experience recorded sounds moving across eight speakers, including layered conversations from Black archives, nature field recordings, and electronic sounds. For Dyson (b. 1973, Chicago), sound is a physical vibration that can connect our bodies to our surroundings. The title Akua is inspired by the name of a family member; Akua means “born on Wednesday” in West African Akan tradition.
According to the Americans for the Arts, public art is often site-specific, meaning it is created in response to the place and community in which it resides. Today there are hundreds of public art programs located throughout the United States, managed by federal, state, county or city governments and by agencies such as public transit and aviation authorities.
In Chicago, the Loop area is known for public art by renowned artists, including Picasso, Chagall, Miro, and Calder. New York City is famous for its public art in the parks and in its public transportation system. Philadelphia has extensive public art installations, most famously through its Mural Arts program, Richmond has its monuments to civil war history, Kansas City has sculptures that beautify and encourage wonder, and these are just a few examples that you will read about below.
Nina Chanel Abney: San Juan Heal at Lincoln Center Commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem and Public Art Fund Photo by Nicholas Knight, courtesy of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Public Art Fund, NY
The National Endowment of the Arts supports community development efforts in cities, towns, and rural places across the country and states that artists, designers, and cultural organizations can play an essential role in realizing community-driven transformation, enhancing the authentic character of place, and ensuring equitable outcomes for local stakeholders. Many public art programs are legally mandated, with one to three percent of various construction project budgets set aside specifically for public art. In addition to the “Percent for Art” programs, projects and programs are funded through public/private partnerships.
New York City is home to several organizations that are actively supporting and commissioning public art. The city’s Public Art Fund focuses on contemporary art and was founded in 1977 by art activist Doris C. Freedman (1928-1981). Among many other things, Freedman led the fight to legalize artists’ residences in Soho and helped to pass New York City’s Percent for Art legislation in 1982, which requires that a portion of the budget for City-funded construction projects be allotted for art.
New York’s Department of Transportation’s public art program utilizes infrastructure as canvases for temporary installations. Asphalt, bridges, fences, jersey barriers, medians, plazas, sidewalks, step streets, streetlight poles, and triangles serve as canvases and foundations for temporary murals, projections, sculptures, and interventions.
New York NY USA-September 5, 2024 Workers prepare ground cover for the 100 sculpture Great Elephant Migration public art installation in the Meatpacking District in New York. Shutterstock.
During the heart of the pandemic, Side of Culture reported on the MTA’s Art Underground initiative with the art photography of Jeanette May. The MTA Arts & Design was created to oversee the selection of artists and installation of permanent artworks in subway and commuter rail stations.
There are more than 300 works by world famous, mid-career and emerging artists. MTA Arts & Design has grown to encompass Music Under New York, Graphic Posters, Poetry in Motion, Digital Arts, the photographic Lightbox Project, special events and industrial design issues. The MTA Arts & Design strives to create meaningful connections among New York City’s diverse sites, neighborhoods and people.
MTA Arts & Design Lightbox exhibition in 2020 at 42nd St & 6th Ave, New York City. c. Jeanette May
“A public art project reaches a broader audience than those visiting art galleries and museums. The MTA Art & Design program brings art into subway stations, trains, and buses, reaching a large and diverse population. Their murals, sculptures and Lightbox installations transform municipal spaces into beautiful, inspiring playgrounds for all age groups,” said Jeanette May, a Brooklyn-based visual artist.
On an even more micro level, the Times Square Arts collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world’s most iconic urban places through the Square’s electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues. Times Square has always been a cultural district and place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the arts program ensures these qualities remain central to the district’s unique identity.
An installation titled “Love Ever After” by Pernilla Ohrstedt Studio was on display in Times Square from February 4 to March 4, 2025, as part of the 17th annual Times Square Arts Love & Design Competition. The installation featured a three-dimensional grid of metal mesh, forming a heart shape, and was designed to highlight the reuse and regrowth of materials, including those used in oyster reef cages. Shutterstock
Even New York City’s parks are host to the country’s greatest outdoor public art museum. The permanent art collection features more than a thousand monuments across New York City. From sculptures and fountains to abstract work and commemorative tablets. The permanent collection tells the story of New York City through its work.
Tauba Auerbach: Flow Separation Commissioned by Public Art Fund and 14-18 NOW and presented on Fireboat John J. Harvey in New York Harbor, 2018-2019 Photo by Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery and Public Art Fund
Since 1925, Kansas City has been supporting public art programs through its Municipal Art Commission. The Kansas City International Airport participates in the City of Kansas City, Missouri’s “One Percent for Art” program, which stipulates that one percent of public construction costs be set aside for public art enhancements. This program provides a catalyst for artistic growth and aesthetic excellence in the community while enhancing the vitality of Kansas City, enriching the lives of its citizens and visitors. All artworks were approved by the Municipal Art Commission.
Travelers visiting Kansas City International Airport will experience the largest public art project in Kansas City history. Artwork from local, regional, and international artists are featured throughout the terminal, parking garage, and concourses. The commissioned artworks range in medium from traditionally framed drawings, paintings and photography to textiles, floor mosaics, ceramics, mixed-media, assemblage, digital and electronic art displays, reliefs and sculptures.
Soo Sunny Park, Escalator to Baggage Claim Ceiling, https://flykc.com/public-art, Stainless steel, dichroic acrylic. This composition honors Bennie Moten (1894-1935), whose innovative “Moten Swing” helped Kansas City become the only UNESCO City of Music in the United States. Jazz makes something new of ordinary musical materials. “Molten Swing” uses ordinary steel frames and acrylic tiles to sculpt a malleable visual structure that changes as travelers and light flow through the space. It is a center of energy that reshapes the space around it. Photo courtesy of Kansas City, Missouri, One Percent for Art Program.
Philadelphia is perhaps most famous for its program, MuralArts. In 2020, Linda Cabasin wrote in her article in SideofCulture, “Philadelphia’s famous citywide gallery of outdoor murals is both an icon like the city’s historic sites and a force to improve public spaces and society. Since the 1980s, Mural Arts Philadelphia has overseen the creation of almost 4,000 artworks by local, national, and international artists, earning Philadelphia the nickname ‘City of Murals.’”
Michael Webb’s Tree of Knowledge, celebrating the Eisenhower Fellowships that support international understanding, includes some trompe l’oeil brickwork. Copyright Linda Cabasin.
The Association for Public Art (aPA) in Philadelphia seeks to respond to the conditions of our time with new commissions, while interpreting and preserving public art for future generations. The organization has commissioned, purchased, and placed an impressive selection of sculpture in various settings throughout Philadelphia. It states on its website:
“Public art can be huge or small. It can tower fifty feet high or call attention to the paving beneath your feet. It can be site-specific or stand in contrast to its surroundings. Public art can express community values, enhance our environment, transform a landscape, heighten our awareness, or question our assumptions. Public art is the artist’s response to our time and place.”
“Art on the Parkway” continues as a juried open call organized by the Association for Public Art (aPA) in partnership with the Parkway Council and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR). It invites artists, designers, and other creatives to propose a temporary public art installation in Maja Park on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway that will be commissioned for summer 2025.
Philadelphians fell in love with Amy Sherald’s towering Untitled mural when it was completed in 2019. Copyright Linda Cabasin.
Downtown Richmond’s riverfront is rich with art and exhibits that allow visitors and residents to experience the James River and the Canal Walk’s treasured history and beauty. The April 1865 Exhibit memorializes some of the most dramatic events in Richmond’s history during three days in April 1865 when the city fell to the Union Army after four years of civil war. Quotes, images and views of the remains of Civil War-era bridges bring back the extraordinary events of the war’s end.
The Headman Statue on Brown’s Island depicts a 19th century boatman — also known as a headman — and commemorates the early contributions of African Americans to commerce in Richmond. Boatmen were essential to Richmond’s canal system, which provided faster transport of raw materials and finished goods around the falls of the James River. The statue is 14 feet high with a 23-foot “sweep,” or oar, and it was designed and created by Paul DiPasquale. The bronze version of the statue was unveiled in November 1993.
The Virginia Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission dedicated and unveiled a new monument highlighting Virginia’s – and America’s – African American history on September 22, 2021 on Brown’s Island. The newly constructed Emancipation and Freedom Monument, was commissioned and designed by artist and sculptor, Thomas Jay Warren, of Oregon. It features two 12-foot bronze figures – a male and female holding an infant – representing those newly freed from slavery. Copyright Richmond Region Tourism by Carla Murray.
“The public art in the Richmond Region is incredibly diverse, creative and compelling. More than 200 murals and monuments add beauty and eye-catching interest to our streets for locals and visitors alike, and they also help to tell the story of Richmond’s dynamic past, present and future,” said Carla Murray, Director of Marketing and Communications.
The Americans for the Arts created a thoughtful and comprehensive document on Why Public Art Matters and emphasizes how public art brings “meaning to our civic spaces, adds uniqueness to our communities, and humanizes the built environment. Public art matters because our communities gain cultural, social, and economic value. It brings about economic growth and sustainability, attachment and cultural identity, highlights artists as contributors, adds to social cohesion, cultural understanding, lends a sense of belonging and all of these factors contribute to public health. Throughout history, art in public spaces has created beauty and physical spaces that are accessible by all and from which all truly benefit.
Sol LeWitt (1928 – 2007, b. Hartford, CT) was one of America’s most inventive, prolific, and influential artists. He created significant bodies of work in two and three dimensions, including drawings, photographs, prints, and sculptures (known as “structures”). This work is from an outdoor exhibition in 2011. It is named Complex Form 6, 1987 by Sol LeWitt. Photo by Jason Wyche. Courtesy LeWitt Estate, 2007/Artists Rights Society, New York.
