How can public art affect public spaces and how we use them?
Public art is available to the public domain and therefore anyone can visit and get a stronger sense of experience. The art galleries may be found at public places outside buildings or at times, they may be integrated inside buildings, doors, buses etc. Public art in public places have a greater role as it speaks or communicates to the whole community. Public art is always available for everybody to see and experience at any time since you can encounter it at any time in front of you, as a matter of fact public art has occupied the public space and been serving societal needs for a long time (Robertson Jean).
Public art affect community spaces in that in interferes with communication in those places, for instance, the public Art in Kansas City in front of public police and fire department (Laura Spencer). This is because when a piece of art is made the artist always has an intention; a message that the art should convey to the people and the entire environment. This art in Kansas has created a lot of controversy, as it had to be moved and stored due to the building expansion. This interfered with the communication by the art because public art is always associated with a level of permanence in a place. After the renovation, the public art was brought back but to a new location which to some extent distorted the initial message that was being communicated by the art. It affects how people use public places by the message it conveys, for example, in this art a lot of people had connected the art to ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Say No Evil’. This had to be changed after it was relocated and hence confusing people on the message conveyed and the association of public places.
Public art provides aesthetics to public places including cities in collaboration with the communities surrounding such areas (Kansas City). This can be compared to the same way people decorate their homes, public art offers the visual appeal, pride, and appreciation of the environment that in most cases represent health and wealth of those places. Because of this, people use public places for the aesthetic nature conveyed by the public art to shape the consciousness, create collective attitudes, inspire, change behavior and reduce stress. In different places around the world and specifically Kansas City, an artist must first consult the community and the authorities before coming up with an artwork that will portray the aesthetic nature of a public place and decorate such places.
Public art provides expressions and break the sameness identity of neighborhoods and cities giving public places a stronger sense of identity (Robertson Jean). For example, people always identify cities and towns by remembering places; art makes it easy to remember such places as it creates icons and landmarks that are well known by the people and can be remembered easily. For example, people remember San Francisco because of the “Golden Gate Bridge”. It is ascertained that without public art in public places people would loose town and human identities, this is because artists capture the spirit and atmosphere of cities and towns (Robertson Jean). People use such public places by remembering the pieces of public art and their representation of the neighborhood and atmosphere (Robertson Jean).They use these places to achieve a strong sense of belonging to a place, town, or city.
Works cited
Kansas City. Public Art Frequently Asked Questions, December 5, 2015. Retrieved from:
Laura Spencer. Controversial Public Artwork Back On Display in Downtown Kansas City, April
10, 2015. Retrieved from: http://kcur.org/post/controversial-public-artwork-back-display-downtown-kansas-city#stream/0.
Robertson Jean. Oxford Art Online: Art in the 21st Century. Oxford University Press, December
5 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.oxfordartonline.com/public/page/themes/artin21cent.