press room

For Immediate Release

Announces Project in Focus, Call for Artists Resource Guide, and
A Call for Presentations for 2004 Public Art Conference

Washington DC - July 17, 2003 - The Public Art Network (PAN) of Americans for the Arts recently developed a series of initiatives and resources that will increase the visibility of outstanding and innovative public art projects and provide support to the public art community.  PAN is designed to provide services to the diverse field of public art and to develop strategies and tools to improve communities through public art.
 
Project in Focus is an online exhibition of exceptional public art projects that offer new approaches to working in the public realm.  Each project will be posted as a case-study, that will include images, text, and related information.  Several times a year, an exemplary project will be selected and published on the PAN section of the Americans for the Arts website: www.AmericansForTheArts.org/PAN.  Any public art project in the United States or abroad is eligible for submission, including projects in the planning stages.  Of particular interest are projects that engage the public and create new types of opportunities for artists.  Projects with approved designs within the past two years can also be submitted, as well as those that were completed since 2002. 

Multiple Memorials, an artist-initiated project by Mary Miss, in collaboration with her studio members Elliot Maltby and Victoria Marshall, has been selected to launch Project in Focus. Through her individual and design team projects, Mary Miss has helped to shape the field of public art. Multiple Memorials is her project to provide a forum for the ideas of visual artists-voices that she noticed were absent from the loud dialogue in the wake of 9/11.

 "With the carefully planned World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition currently underway, Multiple Memorials demonstrates a range of simple gestures that might occur in other parts of the city which mark individual responses to this moment in time. In contrast to what might be expected for a permanent memorial, these ideas register the way an individual observes, feels, and responds to the events of that day unraveling. It is unlikely that these artists would carry out these particular ideas today, but the proposals convey a response that is both real and immediate. They also present a way of seeing the city as a vast organism that is capable of feeling pain throughout." - Jennifer McGregor, Curator, Bronx, NY, PAN Visibility Committee Chair.

Call for Artists Resource Guide  is an essential tool for arts organizations that are seeking to develop high-quality opportunity listings of public art projects. The 17-page guide includes sections on call for artist definitions and descriptions, a model RFP and RFQ, and a listing of places to send artist calls.  The Call for Artists Resource Guide was developed by the Public Art Network as part of its goal to provide tools to the public art field.  Copies of this resource guide may be downloaded free of charge on the Public Art Network section of the Americans for the Arts website.

Call for Session Proposals - In addition, PAN announced a call for presentations for the 2004 Public Art Conference to be held in Washington, DC.  The National Conference Committee seeks contributions that address the following topic areas:  cultural identity and the redefinition of civic space and the use of public art as a tool for the development of cultural identity and civic space, memorials, and the Federal Government: its role and contribution to the history and evolution of the nation's public art, and new technologies: their influence on public art and the meaning of public space.

Sessions accepted through the call process will be presented in conjunction with conference sessions planned by the National Conference Committee.  The committee is chaired by Ricardo Barreto, Director, UrbanArt Institute, Boston, MA and Susan Nichols, Director, Save Outdoor Sculpture!, Washington, DC.

The Public Art Network, a program of Americans for the Arts, is designed to provide services to the diverse field of public art and to develop strategies and tools to improve communities through public art.  The Network's constituents are public art professionals, visual artists, design professionals, and communities and organizations planning public art projects and programs.

Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, it has a 40-year record of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org. 

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