The idea of creating or displaying public art often stems from the philosophy that art enriches the life and culture of a community and helps people to think critically about social issues. Rather than viewing art in an austere museum setting, where the viewer is distanced from the work, public art becomes part of the community, interacting with it instead of being passively observed. As such, art and design created for public exhibition are great vehicles for expressing ideas and creating awareness. These artists and designers can be powerful educators, inventing new and visually descriptive ways to illustrate, in a public forum, how the concerns of society can best be achieved.
In a paper I recently presented at the conference, Design Principles and Practices at Sapienza University in Rome, I examined some of the ways contemporary creators of public art and event design are expressing their concerns for the environment, through their work. Please feel free to download a copy of the Presentation.
Kerri Ainsworth - The Designing Woman 