Plans for Cities, Counties and Regions
Lewisville, TX: Public Art Master Plan Update (2024)
In response to a variety of new opportunities and the achievement of many of the goals outlined in their 2018 Public Art Master Plan, the city of Lewisville, TX hired Bressi for a second time in 2023 to update that original plan. This new version, developed through additional research and engagement with both artists and the local community, provides recommendations pertaining to these new opportunities, as well as the city’s overall policies and priorities when it comes to public art. Find the update here.
Concord, NC: We Are Here! You Are Here! (2023)
Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in public art in Concord, N.C., a rapidly growing city just to the northeast of Charlotte. Conord’s new public art plan seeks to amplify the voices of diverse communities as well as strengthen the identity of Concord as seen by others. Find it here.
Salisbury, MD: Public Art Master Plan (2023)
In 2022, the city of Salisbury wanted to create a plan that would lead to the creation of more local public art, initiated by both the city itself and in partnership with local creatives and businesses. To realize this goal, they hired Bressi, who developed the plan after conducting public meetings, focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and surveys, in addition to other research. The plan was completed and presented to City Council in September 2023, which resulted In the creation of a city Public Art Committee. Find the plan here.
Alexandria, VA: Annual Public Art Work Plan (2023)
After collaborating with Via Partnership to help the City of Alexandria create their Public Art Implementation Plan in 2013, Bressi worked with the city each year for ten years afterwards to help them develop their Annual Public Art Work Plans, which identified priorities and projects for the city’s public art program for the coming year. You can read more about this process here.
Raleigh, NC: Public Art Strategic Plan (2022)
A decade-old public art plan receives an upgrade. Read our blog post about the new plan and how the city of Raleigh plans to incorporate more art that reflects the city’s creative life and cultural diversity here. Find pictures and more information here.
Arlington, VA: Public Art Master Plan Update (2021)
Bressi helped Arlington, Va., complete an update of its public art master plan, which dated to 2004. The master plan reaffirmed the County’s commitment to linking public art to public and private investment in its major corridors, but added two new geographic areas of focus and two new overarching themes to reflect new and evolving priorities. The update was completed in 2021, just as Amazon announced its decision to create a headquarters in Arlington, and includes a framework for managing public art along with that development. Read the master plan here.
Dunwoody, GA: Create Dunwoody Public Art Implementation Plan (2020)
Your Community. Your Voice. Your Public Art.
The public art implementation planning process was designed to bring an artful touch to public spaces, gathering places and projects. In October 2018, the City of Dunwoody completed its Create Dunwoody Arts and Culture Master Plan, which stated that arts, culture and placemaking can be economic drivers and civic catalysts, while providing educational benefits and cultural legacies for the community. Two of the key recommendations were to step up public art and placemaking projects. Following on this plan, the city looked for the best opportunities to bring an artful touch to Dunwoody’s public spaces, gathering places and projects. A public survey conducted in the spring of 2020 helped the planning team understand the community’s goals and how art projects can support them.
The City hired Todd Bressi, a consultant who specializes in public art, placemaking and urban design, and who has worked in a variety of Georgia communities, to identify actionable opportunities that best meet Dunwoody’s needs. During the course of his research, he consulted with arts, business and civic organizations in a variety of ways, including this survey. Dunwoody’s Public Art Implementation Plan was approved by the Dunwoody City Council in September 2020.
Cuyahoga Falls, OH: Public Art Master Plan (2019)
Before hiring Bressi, the city of Cuyahoga Falls did not have a public art program despite significant interest from local residents. Therefore, under the guidance of an advisory committee made up of various community leaders, this plan was created to explore the possibility of such a program and provide a framework for its creation. Find the plan here.
Frederick, MD: Connections (2019)
When considering the imperative for Frederick County to invest in public art, it is first worth considering one of Frederick’s most oft-cited assets: its historicity. As Frederick County dwellers and many of its visitors know, layer upon layer of historical significance exists in the area, having played host to events from our nation’s Revolutionary War to the Civil War and beyond. Through the process of developing Connections, the public art master plan for Frederick, stakeholders identified a variety of reasons why investing in public art is important to Frederick now.
Lewisville, TX: Public Art Master Plan (2018)
Lewisville is a city in the north-central section of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, about halfway between Dallas and Denton and a short distance from Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport. Their public art master plan, designed by Bressi in collaboration with Meridith McKinley, sets out a vision for the role that public art can play in Lewisville’s future as a successful city. Find it here.
Nashville, TN: Public Art Community Investment Plan (2017)
What would a public art program look like if its resources were organized to promote creative community investment, citizen engagement, and strengthening the creative workforce? Nashville’s Public Art Community Investment Plan follows on a strong equity based arts and culture strategic plan, mapping a new course for a program configured as a traditional percent for art program. Read more here.
After the plan was completed, we completed two companion documents – a guide for developers
who wish to include public art in their projects, and a guide for mural-making in Nashville. The
intent was to develop tools to increase the capacity of the private and non-profit sectors in
creating public art, thereby creating more opportunities for local artists and integrating public art
more thoroughly in Nashville’s communities.
Troy, NY: Public Art Master Plan (2017)
Bressi and fellow consultant Judie Gilmore were commissioned for this public art master plan by the city of Troy, NY, although it is currently being administered by the Arts Center of the Capital Region, which advocates and creates opportunities for art in and around New York’s capital of Albany. Various factors played into the desire for this plan, including Troy’s 2015 comprehensive plan, its existing public art (which included a large-scale, nationally recognized project completed in 2016), and its desire to become the cultural hub of the Capital Region at a time when it was beginning to see a citywide revitalization, especially in its downtown. Find the plan here.
Sugar Land, TX: Public Art Master Plan (2017)
This public art plan and implementation guide for Sugar Land, TX was the city’s first of its kind, although it did come right on the heels of the city’s 2012 comprehensive vision plan for 2025, as well as a 2014 cultural arts plan developed in 2014. Besides building off of these prior documents and hopefully making Sugar Land a more attractive place to live and work overall, some of the primary intentions of this plan were to help the city establish a clearer vision of what it really wanted when it came to public art, and to come up with a number of public art goals that the city could try and achieve in five years. Find the plan, which was created in partnership with Meridith McKinley of Via Partnership, here.
Athens, GA: Public Art Master Plan (2016)
Bressi helped the Athens Cultural Affairs Commission create a master plan for the public art program in Athens–Clarke County, GA. As a part of the planning process, Bressi created artist residencies as a tool for community engagement and to illustrate social practice through public art approaches. The plan can be viewed here.
- Read about Seitu Jones’ residency here.
- Read about Matthew Mazzotta’s residency here.
- Read about Wing Yung Huie’s residency here.
Suwanee, GA: Public Art Master Plan (2016)
Suwanee, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, has been successful in building a public realm and civic pride. After several years of sponsoring a downtown sculpture exhibition and voluntary program for developers to display public art, Suwanee commissioned Bressi to prepare public art master plan.
Suwanee’s plan charts how it can take its already-successful projects to a new level, with a fundamental commitment to enriching the city’s emerging network of public spaces. Its key recommendations were an artist-designed walkway connecting its Town Center to a major park being developed nearby, artworks that would create a pedestrian loop between its historic downtown and new town center, and a strategy for art along its greenways.
The plan identified sites where public art could be incorporated into the capital budgets of public projects, mapped out sites for a decades worth of public art donations to the City, and outlined a more rigorous policy for the acceptance of donated works.
Finally, the plan suggested a focus on projects that created memorable images for the city, and on projects that reinforced Suwanee’s playful spirit.
You can find the plan here.
Santa Rosa, CA: Public Art Master Plan (2015)
A decade ago, Santa Rosa had great hopes for its arts and culture sector, but after the economic downturn in 2009 city resources dwindled. The public art master plan represents the first step towards rekindling that vision. It offers a focused strategy that identifies “creative zones” for public art that tie into urgent civic issues and opportunities, allows for a wide range of artistic response and community engagement, and promotes collaborations with local arts organizations and curators as a way of boosting production capacity. Bressi joined with Via Partnership to produce the plan.
Read news about the first projects commissioned under the plan by clicking here.
Montgomery County, MD: Public Art Roadmap (2014)
How can a suburban public art program, built 30 years ago at a time of rapid public and developer investment, be reconfigured to address today’s challenges?
Read more about the Roadmap here, and about the Montgomery County Arts and Humanities Council here.
Alexandria, VA: Public Art Implementation Plan (2014)
Alexandria’s Public Art Implementation Plan provides a robust framework for putting the City’s public art policy into action, and allocating approximately $200,000 years in funding for public art projects.
The Implementation Plan outlining processes – including an annual work plan and project specific task forces – that give clarity to decision-making about future projects and stronger oversight of public art commissioned by private developers, while maintaining the level of community engagement that Alexandria’s citizens expect.
Since the Implementation Plan was adopted, Alexandria has completed two permanent projects and a variety of temporary projects, and has already won recognition from the Public Art Network Year in Review for projects that explore hidden aspects of the city’s history.
- Read about the City’s Waterfront Park public art series, include its first installation, Mirror Mirror.
- Learn more about Implementation Plan and public art in Alexandria here.
Bressi joined with Via Partnership and Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects to produce the plan.
El Paso, TX: Public Art Master Plan (2014)
The City of El Paso’s public art program is receiving an infusion of $13 million in project funds as a result of major bond issues. This master plan re-established a vision for the program, outlined program priorities, and identified a range of projects for the program to take on. The plan aligned the program’s priorities with the city’s emerging urban patterns, and included strategies for new projects that focus on neighborhood placemaking. Bressi joined with Via Partnership to produce the plan.
Denver, CO: Denver International Airport Art and Culture Master Plan (2014)
Denver International Airport was an exemplar of integrating artworks into the form and function of the airport when it was built 20 years ago. We are leading an international team of curators, planners and artists to envision a new approach to airport arts and culture projects and programming that will carry the airport through a multi-billion dollar expansion over the next twenty years.
Collaborators: Via Partnership, Creative Time, Dwyer Brown, Gorbet Design, Deana Miller.
Download: Denver Airport Executive Summary
McKinney, TX: Public Art Master Plan (2013)
McKinney, a suburb northeast of Dallas, is anticipating large ways of growth in the coming years as the region’s development pushes outward. The City sough a master plan that would put the infrastructure for a new public art program in place, and identify how art could be incorporated into existing and planned public development. Bressi joined with Via Partnership to produce the plan, which identified key projects and outlined a comprehensive set of policies and procedures.
Coral Gables, FL: Public Art Master Plan (2010)
Coral Gables, a city steeped in the legacy of the City Beautiful Movement and a Mediterranean architectural tradition, sought guidance on a new generation of civic art projects. Bressi worked with Via Partnership to identify key opportunities for public and private development art projects that grow out of the city’s traditional urbanism while reflecting the design and artistic currents of the day.
San Diego, CA: Unified Port of San Diego Public Art Master Plan (2010)
This master plan provided new grounding, creatively and procedurally, for this well-established but struggling program. The plan set out creative directions that show how art can explore facets of the port’s operations, a curatorial plan that creates a broad umbrella for artistic decisions, and strengthened the staff role in decisionmaking.
Plan collaborators included Via Partnership.
Download: UPSD Final Plan
Download: Curatorial Strategy
Pinellas County, FL: Public Art and Design Master Plan
Pinellas County Public Art and Design, a new program that had just secured a decade’s worth of funding through a county bond issue, sought a plan that would stimulate its creative growth. Bressi led a team that recommended strategic directions and mapped out a plan that demonstrated how it could grow incrementally, over the next decade, into commissioning significant integrated, iconic and infrastructural projects.
Collaborators: Via Partnership, Cliff Garten Studio, Jennifer McGregor.
Project undertaken at Brown and Keener Bressi.
Washington, D.C.: DC Creates! Public Art Master Plan
This five-year plan for the Washington, D.C., public art program sets out three creative directions – green city, creative city and civic places – recommends a new focus on temporary projects and an art in private development program, describes new collaborations with city agencies, and outlines a five-year workplan. Bressi joined with Via Partnership to produce the plan.
Arlington County, VA: Public Art, Public Spaces: Public Art Master Plan for Arlington (2004)
The Arlington County public art program used this master plan to give focus to its efforts on creating artworks integrated into county infrastructure and public spaces, and to direct private development art commitments to urban infrastructure in Metro station areas. The plan has guided art projects in parks, urban corridors, stream corridors and infrastructure for more than seven years. Collaborators included Jennifer McGregor and the Laboratory for Architecture and Building.
Download: Arlington Public Art Master Plan
Vancouver, BC: Public Art Program Review
The City of Vancouver sought the first-ever review of its civic, community and private development public art programs; Bressi led a team whose recommendations led to major policy changes: focusing on civic commissions through revived agency partnerships, new approaches to creating opportunities for regional artists, and recalculated mechanisms for funding artworks in civic and private projects. The team created a “space legacy” plan that demonstrated how artworks could be linked to major civic, environmental and Olympics projects, and went on to commission artist-initiated projects, under the theme of “Mapping and Marking,” for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Plan collaborators included Via Partnership and Valerie Otani.
Project undertaken at Brown and Keener Bressi.
Winter Olympics artworks managed by Via Partnership and Karen Henry, with support from Bressi and Joost Bakker.
San Jose, CA: Public Art Next!
The master plan for San José’s public art program helped the agency re-invigorate partnerships with major infrastructure departments – transportation, environmental services, redevelopment – solidify its funding base in the face of dwindling city capital investment, and revamp its standard commissioning process. Bressi joined with Via Partnership to produce the plan.
Project undertaken at Brown and Keener Bressi.
Plans for Districts and Corridors
Austin, TX: Butler Trail Arts and Culture Plan (2023)
Bressi led a team of planners and artists who created a public art plan for one of Austin’s crown jewels – the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-Bike Trail, a ten-mile loop around Lady Bird Lake in the center of the city. The plan was created for The Trail Conservancy, which recently entered into an agreement with the city to manage the trail as well as 300 acres of parkland through which it passes. The plan created a framework for permanent, temporary and performative public art; for artist involvement in design, planning and engagement projects; for artist residencies; and a three-year work plan. The plan also set forth a protocol for interfacing with the City’s Art in Public Places Program. Read more here.
San Diego, CA: San Diego International Airport Public Art Plan (2019)
San Diego International Airport updated its public art plan in 2019, as the airport embarked on a major construction program. The consulting team, led by Bressi, confirmed the impact that public art has on the airport user experience, and outlined more than 20 specific projects that could implement the airport’s percent for art policy as part of the forthcoming construction.
Collaborators: Via Partnership, Victoria Plettner-Saunders, Decision Support Systems
Tacoma, WA: Prairie Line Trail (2011)
Bressi and the Austin-based artist collaborative Thoughtbarn were retained by the City of Tacoma to create a conceptual plan for public along a trail that was moving from an inspirational idea into a full-fledged design and planning process. The western terminus of one of the first transcontinental railroads in the U.S. The team prepared a menu of public art options that could be implemented while the trail was being planned, as elements integrated into the trail design, and as special “overlay” commissions by the City’s Arts Commission or the Tacoma Art Museum, which fronts on the trail.
San Jose, CA: Downtown Next!
The visual character of Downtown San José, the capital of Silicon Valley, will be enriched as this comprehensive plan is implemented. The plan indicates locations for iconic artworks, places where art can help anchor urban spaces in the fabric of the city, zones for changing art, and opportunities for artist-designed infrastructure.
San José’s downtown public art focus plan is an essential tool for charting how its pooled pubic art funds can be used for temporary, iconic and integrated public artworks. The program places city CIP funds, redevelopment CIP funds and private development money in one fund, which is spent to implement projects in the downtown public art plan. Bressi joined with Via Partnership to produce the plan for San José’s public art program.
Project undertaken at Brown and Keener Bressi.
Arlington, VA: Metropolitan Park
Bressi, working with Via Partnership, helped Kettler, Inc., create a master plan for public artworks at Metropolitan Park, Kettler’s three-phase, mixed use development in Pentagon City, Arlington. The plan’s recommendations melded the developer’s site design goals and the county public art program’s public realm goals, and included strategies for commissioning significant artworks even when funding would be available in small increments. Bressi and Via are now helping Kettler commission two artworks in a new public park.
Lexington, KY: Lexington Legacy Trail (2010)
Lexington’s Legacy Trail is a new, nine-mile connection between the city core and the countryside. Working with artist Stacy Levy, we developed a public art strategy that included short-term projects to announce the trail’s path through the landscape, and longer term recommendations for exhibitions and permanent artworks. You can find the plan here.
Pittsburgh, PA: Consol Energy Center Public Art Master Plan (2009)
Bressi and artist Jill Anholt developed a dozen concepts and detailed implementation plans for artworks at the new Consol Energy Center Arena. The recommendations —which included community-based, iconic, temporary and kinetic projects — won support from internal stakeholders and a broader group of stakeholders in the city’s Hill District and Uptown District. The Arena’s internal stakeholder group selected three projects for initial implementation.
Washington, D.C.: Met Branch Trail Public Art and Civic Design Plan
As a member of the planning and design team for this new bicycle and pedestrian trail in Washington D.C., Bressi developed a sketchbook that showed how artworks could relate to the user expeience of the trail, as well as embedded narratives of the history, environment and infrastructure that could be revealed along the way.
Project undertaken at Brown and Keener Bressi.
Orlando, FL: Dr. P. Phillips Performing Arts Center
As a member of the planning and design team for a major cultural facility and public plaza in Orlando, Bressi helped outline strategies for integrating artworks into the architectural design of the building, involving artists in activating the outdoor plaza, and designing connections between the cultural precinct and the surrounding downtown. The project was led by Bobos Art.