The Failures of Public Art and Participation

Description

This collection of original essays takes a multi-disciplinary approach to explore the theme of failure through the broad spectrum of public art and social practice. The anthology brings together practicing artists, curators, activists, art writers, administrators, planners, and educators from around the world to offer differing perspectives on the many facets of failure in commissioning, planning, producing, evaluating, and engaging communities in the continually evolving field of art in the public realm. As such, this book offers a survey of currently unexplored and interconnected thinking, and provides a much-needed critical voice to the commissioning of public and participatory arts. The volume includes case studies from the UK, the US, China, Cuba, and Denmark, as well as discussions of digital public art collections. The Failures of Public Art and Participation will be of interest for students and scholars of visual arts, design and architecture interested in how art in the public realm fits within social and political contexts. Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements List of contributors Introduction • Cameron Cartiere and Anthony Schrag Part I: The Failure of the Process 1 The Failure of the Process: Considering permanent works in an impermanent time • Cameron Cartiere 2 Failure as Success: Sam Durant’s Scaffold, Angela Two Stars’ Okciyapi, and the conundrum of critique • Erika Doss 3 On Monumental Failure: A conversation • Paul Farber and Kanyinsola Anifowoshe 4 Failing Well: Exploring the value of failure through the UK national roll out of Arts on Prescription • Frances Williams 5 There’s Always a Story: Epic failures of the American Percent-for-art model • Shelly Willis and Janet Zweig 6 Taking Inventory: Digital public art collections and the challenge of physical distance • Lori Goldstein 7 Running across Subsidence, Following Leaks: The ordinary failure of public art and public infrastructure services • Becky Shaw Part II: The Failure of Participation 8 The Failure of Participation: The demos is in the detail • Anthony Schrag 9 We Thought We Were Going to Change the World! Socially engaged art as cruel optimism • Sophie Hope 10 Tarde de Sándwiches: The failure of participation in contemporary Cuban art • Celia Gonzalez Alvarez (Translated with thanks by Debra Nagao and Elena Barba) 11 How Intimate Public and Participatory Art Fails the City • Leon Tan 12 No Impact on Cultural Participation?: An analysis of the objective to increase and widen cultural participation in the European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 • Louise Ejgod Hansen and Hans-Peter Degn 13 Public Art Ethics and Failure: A postcolonial perspective on failure and the Centre for Political Beauty • Anika Marschall 14 Dare to Fail: Socially engaged public art and its challenges in contemporary China • Meiqin Wang 15 Epilogue: Reconsidering failure • Harriet F. Senie References Index