Americans for the Arts

Philadelphia is known for a lot of things: Rocky, Will Smith, dedicated sports fans, cheesesteaks…

We’re also a city where:

• Approximately 3 out of every 10 residents are eligible for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
• 18% did not graduate high school
• 7.8% are unemployed (well above the national, state, and regional levels)
• We have the 6^th highest homicide rate among nation’s 10 largest cities

 (Pew State of the City 2015)

Annually, the Public Art Network (PAN) Year in Review recognizes outstanding public art projects that represent the most compelling work for the year from across the country and beyond. The projects are selected and presented by a jury of three professionals who represent different aspects of the public art field, including artists, administrators, and other public art allies. New this year, the PAN Advisory Council curated the selected 49 selected projects for 2018 under five unique themes to broaden the exposure of the selected works on ARTSblog and social media, and to provide context to the works through national trends and themes that are impacting the field today.

Due to increased public discourse over social issues that include marginalized communities, and the current state of our welfare infrastructure, artists are creating works for public space that demand closer examination of our society and our treatment of one another. Indicative of the evolution of public art practice, these works suggest the expanding role of public art in framing and directing public thought and activism. Of the 2018 selected PAN Year in Review projects, three projects represented the intentionality of artists in centering marginalized identities and geographies. These works help frame social justice and inclusion within their communities in a number of ways.

My Feminist mom learned in the working world of the 1970s what it was like to move through patriarchal spaces. Women leaders: those times, they have not fully “a-changed”. You will be belittled, left out. Your appearance is foremost in their minds. Worst of all, other women will cut you down. Confident women: you will be called loud. You are told to moderate your confidence level, called strident. You are not the problem. It’s their expectations that are the problem. In art, we must all be activists. We “fight” not just for funding and support, but also to be included at all planning tables. We should fight to speak for those whose voices may not be in the room—or who are never invited in the first place.