Public art is artwork that is exhibited outside of a gallery context, typically in spaces that are accessible to the public. These spaces may be indoors – such as foyers, atriums or airports – or outdoors – such as parks, squares, freeways or plazas. The defining characteristic of public art is that it is intended to be experienced by a large number of people, often over a long period of time.
Artists create public works for a range of reasons: to beautify the landscape, commemorate events or persons, act as political or social propaganda, or simply to leave their mark. They also use the medium to challenge social norms, or create works that stimulate a dialogue with the community they serve. Public art takes many forms: sculptures/statues, murals, architecture, land and environmental art, guerilla art/street art, actions, interventions, and more. Unlike the more formal presentations of art in galleries and museums, public art occupies a discernibly democratic and free sphere, engaging audiences that may not otherwise be reached by traditional forms of artistic presentation.
The earliest examples of public art are rock carvings made by humans to leave their mark on the world, and ancient cave paintings that depicted hunted animals and scenes of daily life in prehistoric societies. Since then, throughout history and across cultures, artists have continued the practice of leaving their mark amongst our shared spaces. Public artworks can be as simple as a signature written on a napkin, or as complex as a kinetic sculpture that transforms into a musical instrument when a person interacts with it.
Modern Public Art often uses the urban landscape as a canvas, with artists exploring the intersection of art and city planning and working to enhance the quality of life through a holistic approach to urban design. A growing trend in contemporary public art is to incorporate the audience as part of the work through a variety of interactive and experiential methods, from participatory design and crowdsourcing to immersive installations that blur the line between viewer and art object.
Because public art is created for a specific place and community, it is rarely seen in other locations or taken on tour, as is the case with many museum or gallery exhibitions. This permanence is important because it means that the artworks are able to communicate their intended message to a large number of people over a long period of time. In some cases, the removal of a public artwork is a cause for controversy. For example, the controversial decision to remove the Parthenon Marbles from their original location in the Parthenon temple in Athens and put them on display at the British Museum in London has been seen by some as a breach of ethics.
Artists that specialize in creating public works sometimes spend much of their careers devoted to the practice, often creating site-specific outdoor sculptures. These can be commissioned by government agencies or privately funded through percent-for-art ordinances, or they can be created on their own volition as the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland did with his vast Vigeland Sculpture Park, or by street and graffiti artists like Banksy.