Public Art

A giant crossword puzzle has been painted on the side of a 100-foot tall building in Lvov, Ukraine. Clues to the puzzle are planted throughout the city, and the puzzle's answers are revealed at nighttime with the use of special lights.

Public art installations around New Delhi highlights the challenges of preserving India's heritage amidst development. 'We ask people to think about constructing a modern city and the accompanying extinction and loss,' says artist Ravi Agrawal.

Boise, Idaho and other cities in the region have adopted "percent for the arts" initiatives, and are looking to public art to reflect the region's 'maturity.'

St. Paul, Minnesota's artist-in-residence has instituted a program where poems are imprinted into sidewalks throughout the city.

Quirky, artistic bike racks are cropping up in cities around the country--a trend that benefits more than just cyclists.

Poet Marc André Brouillette, a professor at Concordia University in Montréal, brought a team of professionals together to experiment with installing poetry and text in public spaces.

Going beyond traditional approaches to public art, Washington's transit authority has launched a program that provides the city with art that expresses Seattle's "core identity."

Over the past few years, San Francisco's waterfront has become home to art pieces like an enormous, cartoony bow and arrow and a giant spider. Labor historians have a different idea: A five-story crane built in the early 1970s for loading coconuts.

Arts and Culture editor Rebecca Mazzei looks at public art - both official and unofficial - across the landscape of Detroit, and advocates for a bold new public art fund for the city.

In Prague, where graffiti is rampant, an art gallery has secured outdoor wallspace throughout the city and invited graffiti artists to use it as a canvas for 12 days.

In 2006, the city of Louisville set up a wall where graffiti artists were allowed to paint. But when the art started offending neighbors and officials, the wall was shut down. This article wonders if there's room for more public art in Louisville.

An audio artwork called "Bus Station" will be installed in Olympia, WA's downtown transit station, to be heard over the public-address system.

Artist Anish Kapoor, creator of the famous "mirrored jellybean" in Chicago's Millennium Park, is creating a new series of massive sculptures for five depressed cities in Yorkshire. Backers hope the art will transform the region.

Street posters play an important role in participatory civic life, according to this article from re:place magazine.

Artist Christoph Niemann's whimsical illustrations tell the story of his sons' love of the subway.

Artist Olafur Eliasson has installed a cascading waterfall directly under one of the towers of the Brookyln Bridge. In this excerpt, he reflects on the need for public space and the impact of art in public.

An unusual art installation in Trafalgar Square draws attention to Vancouverism: Westcoast Architecture and City Building, an exhibition about the city's achievements in urban development, engineering and architecture.

People love to complain about public art, but an installation in Emeryville, CA is almost universally loved. One expert says, 'It creates something that is thought-provoking. It isn't just decorative.'

Vancouverites send a sculpture packing, stirring up a debate over the role of public art.