Extract
Arlene Raven opened Art in the Public Interest (UMI, 1989) by announcing that “public art isn't a hero on a horse anymore” (p. 1). That was twenty years ago. Today, public art is not just art in a public space, or art that is publicly funded. The subject of public art now includes the dialogue prompted by artworks, and the subsequent reflection upon the tastes, beliefs, and values held by individuals in a community. So argues Cher Krause Knight in Public Art: Theory, Practice and Populism, a book that takes a populist approach to public art and seeks to expand its definition to include not only public artworks, but also the experiences and discussions generated among those uninitiated into the artworld. “I contend that art becomes most fully public when it has palpable populist sentiments—the extension of emotional and intellectual, as well as physical, accessibility to the audience—not a pretension toward such” (p. x).
