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Public art is the most accessible of the visual arts. By virtue of being out in the public realm, its immediacy and proximity to the average citizen makes it part of everyday life. Works of visual arts generally exist in the confined world of a gallery or museum and so those who experience them are usually sensitized to art; in other words, admire, appreciate, enjoy and understand art. By contrast, public art is experienced by everyone, whether they admire, appreciate, enjoy or understand it. Thus the public artist carries a responsibility to the general public. His or her work needs to appeal to a broader audience. It needs to educate, entertain, provoke thought and be visually and intellectually accessible while not lowering the bar of excellence it holds within the fine arts.
The subject of public art education can be approached from several different angles. An important role of a public art program is educating and sensitizing the general public to enjoy and appreciate art, to understand the contribution that public art makes in improving the visual quality of life of our environment. A public art agency carries this message through tours and at presentations to groups with a special affinity and interest in the arts and through collaborative programs with schools and universities. Exposure to the arts at a young age significantly contributes to a well rounded education in a school curriculum. But public art is also an excellent vehicle to carry socially relevant messages to the public, and if misused or abused the messages can be appreciated by some while becoming highly offensive to other segments of the population. Hence the public artist needs to be sensitive to appeal to that broad, general audience, and to certain themes. Other times the artist may consciously want to deliver a message and engage the audience in a particular subject to elicit a reaction or create controversy. It is, therefore, very important for the artist and the commissioning agency to be very clear on the artistic intention before the project is made part of the public domain.
Another important role of a public art program is in educating the artists. Many artists are not knowledgeable or experienced in the opportunities and complexities in the field of public art. Some artists are not used to entering a competition and do not have the tools to prepare and present a winning proposal. Even more important for the artist is knowing how to carry out a project in its totality, from the legal and insurance related aspects of entering into a contract, to the actual design, construction and installation of the project, in which the artist will often act as architect and general contractor, or will be required to engage the services of these multiple disciplines.
Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places program has been in existence since 1973. Established by a county ordinance, it allocates 1.5% of the cost of new county construction for the creation of site-specific works of art. The program has commissioned over 700 works of art located in public buildings throughout the county. A portion of the funds goes towards the maintenance and conservation of the collection, while another portion is set aside for education and community outreach programs. Following are some of the education efforts that our program has implemented in recent years.
SPREADING THE WORD
Miami-Dade Art in Public Places provides educational programming through public art tours, lectures and presentations dedicated to enriching the lives of our students, artists and community.
Tours: We provide tours of the public art collection along the Metrorail and Metromover lines for students in grades 2 through 6. These allow students from all over the county the opportunity to experience public transportation, the downtown area of Miami as well as public art along the rapid transit stations and in the immediate vicinity. These tours are also available to visitors and other special groups by request. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the program, Miami-Dade Transit Agency, in partnership with our office, provided free passes to riders as part of the weekend celebration to be able to visit the public art works along the transit stations.
School Visits: Our staff visits elementary and middle schools and makes audio visual presentations to students as part of the “Career Days” activities of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. These presentations are focused on both increasing awareness and appreciation of the arts and introducing art as a career option for students. Similar programs are also presented to college level classes at Miami-Dade College and New World School of the Arts. New World School of the Arts is a State funded school that provides a comprehensive educational program of artistic training and creative development in the visual and performing arts for high school and college level students.
Artist Lecture Series: A presentation entitled “Understanding Public Art” instructs artists on how to prepare professional images for submission to Artists Registry and Calls to Artists and how to prepare a successful site-specific proposal, including a realistic project budget and the importance of incorporating a maintenance plan. A new program is currently being developed that will take the artist past the point where the proposal is selected for execution. This presentation will guide artists through contract development, working collaboratively with the construction project architects and general contractor teams as well as putting together their own team of architectural consultants and contractors for the larger scale public art projects.
Public Art Conferences: In recent years we have hosted and participated in a number of public art conferences and events. The Florida Association of Public Art Administrators will be holding its annual conference in Miami for the second time in 2007. We have made presentations during this state-wide conference and at the national conference of Americans for the Arts several times. In addition to having the honor of participating in this conference in Taipei, we were recently invited to speak at the American Academy in Rome before those artists selected for their annual residency program.
Community Education: A slide presentation entitled “Creating Public Art Programs” is available for cultural arts organizations and local governments that are contemplating initiating their own public art programs. A series of workshops with those local government representatives follows in order to guide them through the preparation and implementation of a public art ordinance and program tailor-made to the local needs. This program has resulted in the successful implementation of public art programs in Miami Beach and Key Biscayne, while similar efforts are currently underway in Coral Gables, North Miami Beach, Miami Shores and Hialeah.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN OUR SOCIETY
Based on the power of public art to challenge and transform communities, Art in Public Places has developed a series of programs that represent collaborative joint ventures with local artists, youth groups and public agencies in an effort to effect social change.
In ArtCARE, local artists work with youth that have been assigned to Bay Point Schools, a program of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice developed as an alternative to juvenile detention centers. Boys in residence receive basic training in the visual arts as a means of expressing feelings and emotions rather than through physical violence.
Master-Peace was developed in collaboration with a youth-at-risk community organization, Miami-Dade Public Schools, Art in Public Places and other public and private organizations to address the diverse issues and concerns facing today’s youth. Under the direction of a local artist, over 4700 students from twelve different schools participated, engaging in dialogue over community and world issues affecting today’s youth, including cultural diversity, world peace, problem solving and conflict resolution. Students painted murals, wrote poetry and presented plays addressing these issues.
PATH, an acronym for Public Art Transforming Housing, involved local artists with youth-at-risk living in public housing sites to create works of art that address community issues that promote healthy choices and advocate drug-free environments and lifestyles. The program was a collaborative effort of Art in Public Places with Miami-Dade Housing Agency, Police Department and private community organizations.
Tropical Park Refugee Summer Youth Camp was developed as a program for immigrant children to attend summer camp in county park facilities, while learning English and assimilation into American society, finding modes of expressing their emotions of life in a new life and creating permanent art installations that enhanced their surroundings. The program was a collaboration of Art in Public Places, the Department of Human Services, Refugee Family Services and Park and Recreation Department.
Poetry in Transit was developed in collaboration with Miami-Dade Transit Agency, the New World School of the Arts and a poetry organization called Ears Lips and Mouths. Poets and art students selected each other to form teams that together composed poetry to go on art posters that were then displayed inside Metrorail trains and on the outside of buses. The colorful, artistic posters incorporated short poems with socially relevant messages. The project stayed up for a full year and was thoroughly enjoyed by public transit users and by anyone on the street who saw the buses go by. Art in Public Places coordinated the multi-disciplinary effort, the School of the Arts provided the printing free of charge and the Transit Agency provided free space that would normally be used for paid advertisements.
SPECIAL EVENTS FOR EDUCATION, ENTERTAINMENT AND PUBLICITY
Special events offer an excellent opportunity to get together with friends and colleagues, network with artists and bring free exposure to special projects and to the program in general.
Art Opening Receptions are held at the completion of important public art projects. The artist, members of the arts community, elected officials and members of the media will gather for a social event, to celebrate the installation of the work and engage the general public on the accomplishments of the program.
Other Special Events have been held to celebrate significant milestones. On the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the program, a special exhibit and reception highlighting accomplishments of the Art in Public Places program was held in conjunction with “Art Miami”, an annual arts fair where national and international galleries participate during a weekend-long series of exhibits and events. For the 30th Anniversary we teamed up with the Transit Agency to restore some of the oldest public art projects located along the transit lines. We provided the technical oversight and Transit provided the materials and labor free of charge. A reception and series of special events were held at the conclusion of the restoration of seven major public art pieces, obtaining significant free publicity for both Art in Public Places and for the Transit Agency.
Art Bank Acquisitions Exhibit. In addition to the Core Collection which includes the large scale public art projects and installations, the program comprises a significant number of small artworks, such as paintings, photographs, textiles and small sculptures and objects that adorn lobbies, conference rooms and other public spaces on county buildings. Within the past year we did a Call to Artists for acquisition of small scale art pieces from local up-and-coming artists. Forty pieces were purchased for approximately $55,000. An exhibit and opening reception were held in a vacant space located adjacent to the lobby of the main county building, which was converted into an art gallery for a period of two weeks. Both the opening reception and the temporary exhibit were a resounding success, well-attended and enjoyed by county employees and visitors alike.
Performing Arts Center Exhibit. We are currently organizing an exhibit to be held in December as part of this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach special events. Art Basel, traditionally held in Switzerland as one of the world’s most important art fairs and exhibitions, has been holding a spinoff art exposition in Miami Beach for the past five years. Among this year’s week-long celebrations which will include gallery openings, celebrity parties, special events and tours of private collections, will be this special exhibit highlighting original proposal drawings, mock-ups, models and video presentations of the public art projects at the recently inaugurated Miami Performing Arts Center. Designed by the internationally renowned architectural firm of Cesar Pelli Architects, the Performing Arts Center contains some of the greatest works of public art our office has ever conceived. Following are some images of the proposal drawings and mock-ups that will be part of the exhibit, along with views of the finished art projects they represent. Among the projects are the curtain and organ scrim for the Ballet/Opera House and the Concert Hall, designed by New York artist Robert Rahway Zakanitch; the lobby floors and balcony railings by Jose Bedia, touted as the most influential young Cuban artist in the international scene; the entrance plaza fountains and seating benches by Anna Valentina Murch, from San Francisco; a glass mosaic mural at the entrance to the Studio Theater by Cundo Bermudez, at 91 years of age considered the greatest living Cuban artist; an outdoor terrazzo and glass plaza by Gary Moore and an art video documenting the development of the public art projects by cinematographer Konstantia Kontaxis. The exhibit is co-sponsored by Art Basel and “The Miami Herald”, the local newspaper. Tours of the public art projects at the Center will be offered in conjunction with the exhibit. We are already in conversation with representatives of Art Basel and “The Miami Herald” to make this an annual event that will highlight the new public art projects completed during the previous year.
COMMUNICATIONS THROUGH PRINTED AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA
One of the strengths of the program over the years has been in disseminating public information through both printed and electronic media. Invitations to openings, brochures, catalogs and other publications are done in-house, with great attention to the highest quality of graphic design. Following are some highlights of the most notable recent publications:
“Collaboration” was developed as part of the celebration of the 25th year of the Art in Public Places program.
“Works in Progress” highlights a large number of projects at various stages of planning, design, construction and installation, several of which are not completed.
“Art en Route” was done for the celebration of the program’s 30th anniversary and showcases public art at the Metrorail and Metromover rapid transit stations.
“Art Bank Recent Acquisitions” is a catalog developed as part of the exhibit of the small scale pieces recently acquired for the collection.
“Art at the Carnival Performing Arts Center” is the most recent brochure, published in time for the Center’s grand opening in early October of this year. A more comprehensive catalog will compliment the exhibit that will be held in conjunction with Art Basel in December.
Our Website has become our most recent, most important and farthest reaching vehicle for disseminating public information. The website provides a home page with basic information about the program, the staff and the Art in Public Places Trust, our governing body. There is extensive information about the collection, listed by artist or location, including a “fact sheet” and photos of each piece.
There is also a “News” section that has current information on upcoming events, recently completed works and new commissions. Also included is valuable information for artists on how to apply for the program, current and upcoming Calls to Artists and other resources and organizations at the local, state and national level.
Miami-Dade County has its own television station, MDTV, where our program is frequently featured in shows such as “Downtown Dade” that focuses on cultural activities in the community. Interviews with staff and artists are often seen, along with coverage of public art projects’ openings and dedications.
“The Culture of the Structure”. One of our most significant recent projects is the production of an art video entitled “The Culture of the Structure”, by Konstantia Kontaxis and Ed Talavera that deals with the development from design through fabrication and installation of the public art projects at the Performing Arts Center. The objective of this video project was to be more than a documentary or an educational tool, even though it is both. The primary intent was to commission a video artist to make a video art piece that can be viewed and enjoyed by audiences everywhere.
We have the pleasure of presenting the world premiere of “The Culture of the Structure” here in Taipei. This is not the final version of the film, since the Performing Arts Center opened only three weeks ago and the video artist still needs to incorporate images of the grand opening event into her film.
But for now, please, sit back and enjoy the film!
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