Art

Community gardens are popping up all over Detroit. This post from Model D takes a tour through three of them, and explores how they balance art and nature.

August 11, 2011 - Model D

Public art plays a role in cities across the world. But what role exactly, and for what purpose? Glass House Conversations explores these questions in this series.

August 9, 2011 - Glass House Conversations

A variety of unsanctioned urban art projects are scattered throughout Toronto, bringing life and energy to otherwise underused spaces.

July 28, 2011 - The Toronto Star

A recent bid to lease the land that houses Spiral Jetty, the iconic piece of landscape art by Robert Smithson, has raised questions about whether art on land can be owned and where the line between the two should lie.

July 15, 2011 - Reuters

This post from The Urbanophile highlights some of the best videos focused on cities.

July 9, 2011 - The Urbanophile

The legacy of Los Angeles murals has all but left the city, buried under sign ordinances, billboard policy and tagging. Tanner Blackman in the Dept. of City Planning Code Studies Section is working to free up the knot of regulation.

July 7, 2011 - KCET

Artist Candy Chang has taken an old building in Fairbanks, Alaska and turned it into a public idea board that asks locals what they think should be done with it.

July 1, 2011 - Fast Company

Photographer Daniel Kariko focuses on issues of land use in sensitive environments. His latest work looks at stalled suburban housing developments in the U.S.

June 21, 2011 - domus

This video from Public Architecture looks at three outdoor lighting displays and their impact on the public realm in San Francisco.

May 26, 2011 - Public Architecture

This essay from Pop Matters explores the connection between street art and urbanism.

April 12, 2011 - Pop Matters

Through a rule that allows landlords to financially benefit from allowing charities and non-profits to use their spaces, empty office buildings in the UK are being utilized by groups for a variety of projects, including an art exhibition.

March 24, 2011 - This Big City

In an effort to encourage thinking about the future of the city, a new group of urban planners/artists has created a series of posters depicting imagined urban developments in New Orleans and posted them around town.

March 18, 2011 - Places

As the city of Los Angeles's budget faces deep cuts, money to pay for the upkeep of the city's iconic Watts Towers folk art installation has dried up. But a museum is stepping in to try to keep the Towers alive.

February 9, 2011 - The New York Times

Artist Tracy Snelling makes obsessively detailed miniature reconstructions of mundane landscapes like liquor stores, strip clubs, McDonalds and Walmarts.

January 25, 2011 - Hi Fructose

An art competition in Salt Lake City has resulted in a new installation to be built in one of the city's vacant lots.

January 19, 2011 - The Salt Lake Tribune

An art gallery in New York City currently has an installation called Park Here, which is an indoor parkspace made up of fake grass, trees and sunlight.

January 17, 2011 - The New York Times

The Polis Blog presents a huge list of "urban favorites" -- songs, movies, initiatives and places that explain or highlight the best of the world's urban areas.

January 15, 2011 - The Polis Blog

A new musical has been written about Robert Moses and his impact on New York City. Robert A. Caro, Moses' Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, attends a rehearsal.

January 13, 2011 - The New York Times

Artist Lori Nix has created an installation she calls simply, "The City". It consists of detailed dioramas of crumbling public institutions like libraries, churches, and malls.

December 17, 2010 - Fast Company

Two artists have teamed with a favela in Rio de Janeiro to use bright colors to re-frame the slum as a more vibrant area.

November 20, 2010 - CNN