Arlington County Economic Development, the home agency for the Arlington, Va., public art program, has just published an article I authored, Four Lenses on the Value of Public Art.
From the introduction:
“This paper sets a context for Arlington’s public art program, as it expects to complete four major projects throughout Arlington this fiscal year, and potentially fourteen additional projects by 2015. The paper provides a context for understanding the program’s accomplishments and impact on Arlington’s community life and urban landscape, and for discussing the impact these new projects will have on Arlington’s future.
“To build this context, the paper draws on a review of general research about public art by scholars from the U.S. and abroad, but it does not undertake original research on that topic. We also review the accomplishments of Arlington’s public art program, drawing on a broad set of parameters that have commonly been used to describe the impact that public art can have in communities.”