Thinking about the Public in Public Art 

by Tom Eccles and Tom Finkelpearl with Ann Pasternak

               According to the conversation between Eccles and Finkelpearl, during towards the 90s, the Percent for Art program had more artists who were of color. Art is a barrier breaker that does not discriminate but the exhibitions themselves are judged by people who do not necessarily understand the concept of using art as a bridge into other cultures: "For example, working with a Japanese-American artist in Chinatown or a Puerto Rican artist in Dominican Washington Heights is a bridge-building exercise versus whether it's an Asian artist in an Asian community and a Latino artist in a Latino community."

               Finkelpearl argues that the problem was meant to create diverse art in the diverse cultural mixture of New York. By introducing arts not native to a certain community, it required the audience to take a step forward and accept the art as being unfamiliar. The artists are expected to pull the audience into their work; by having the community interact with the process, the product is not just a classified piece belonging to a X artist from X country, it becomes a public piece that belongs to the community. 

Posted by Patrick Chen