Art in the Public Realm

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Quotations and viewpoints on the role of artists in the public domain.
Quotable quotes

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* The contribution of art and artists is more than merely placing a piece of public art in front of a building, or staging a performance in a public space. This is narrow thinking.
Charles Landry
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Art isn't necessary anymore as a field, a profession; art is no longer a noun, it [has] become a verb. Art is nothing but a general attitude of thickening the plot.
Vito Acconci
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Art is language and public art is public speech.
Jonathan Jones, The Guardian
* Bring artists in as creative thinkers, not just as makers of objects.
* Prescriptive briefs and hesitant clients produce dull work.
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Public art can be static, moving, part of the infrastructure or a projection of light and sound. It can last for a minute, a day, a year or a lifetime.
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If you want change you must be prepared to think differently.
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There is no such thing as a ‘public artist’, just artists who work in a variety of contexts.
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Quality of work should always be an issue.
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Public art can put the emotion back into the built environment.
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There can be no public art without collaboration.
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Public art can be static, moving, part of the infrastructure or a projection of light and sound. It can last for a minute, a day, a year or a lifetime.
PASW
* Artists are not miracle workers – they’re just another alternative.

Mary Jane Jacobs
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Artists bring meaning to forgotten elements.
Jim Buckley, artist
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Making time for Design is the first rule of good design involving artists.
Chris Smith, ex Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
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The function of public art is to de-design.
Vito Acconci
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Artists are not miracle workers – they’re just another alternative.
Mary Jane Jacobs
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Artists, designers, planners and architects alike must face the challenge of defining public space, as an opportunity to create or improve the sense of community among those who will determine the use, or abandonment of a place.
Ethan Kane, from Ars Poetica, 2004
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Modern society undoubtedly needs creativity and vision more than it needs works of art... It needs artists with their ways of doing things more than it needs the things they make. It needs them for what they ‘are’ rather than for what they ‘do’.
Pavel Buchler
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Art is an activating agent.
Mel Gooding
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Public art, in all its diversity, can mediate all spaces as Places.
John Newling
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The new public art demands and invites communication and the engagement of others.
Mary Jane Jacob
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Abstract space becomes particular place.
Jeff Kelley
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Just as an individual person dreams fantastic happenings to release the inner forces which cannot be encompassed by ordinary events, so too a city needs its dreams.
Christopher Alexander