Placemaking is a Verb

Penny Balkin Bach

On reflection, I think most of us would agree that the term "placemaking" has been conjugatedbeyond definition. This year's public art pre-conference is called "Public Art and Placemaking." In myview, the best public art is inherently placemaking (the verb). Perhaps the pre-conference shouldinstead be called "Public Art IS Placemaking."

Based on my experience at the Association for Public Art (aPA), formerly the Fairmount Park ArtAssociation, art in public spaces has long been a material attribute of our civic landscape. We knowand can cite examples of public art that enhance our environment, transform landscapes, expresscommunity values, bring people together, heighten our awareness, or question our assumptions.

Placed in public sites, this art is there for everyone as a form of collective community expression. Ioffer evidence of this in Philadelphia, where over time people have come to name our parks after theartworks that are located in them.

So, we have the notorious LOVE Park (after Robert Indiana's LOVE), but we also have ShakespearePark (after the Shakespeare Monument by Alexander Sterling Calder) and Iroquois Park (afterIroquois by Mark Di Suvero).

Iroquois (1983-1999). Mark di Suvero (left); Symbiosis

(2011, installed 2014), Roxy Paine (right) in Iroquois Park. Photo James Ewing © 2014 for theAssociation for Public Art.

Importantly, these parks were not formally named by planners or cartographers; the parks acquiredthese names because that's how people chose to identify them. The unique attributes of thesculptures are what define those places. Interestingly, all three parks are currently slated for re-landscaping, making the case that the art informs the surrounding landscape - not the other wayaround.

Could the enthusiasm for placemaking, pop-ups, and collaboration in the extreme, be inadvertentlyprecipitating a raft of lackluster and copycat installations across the country? The pop-up approachhas been very effective in turning non-public and derelict sites into gathering spaces by the verynature of its welcoming attributes. And that's good. But in the end, pop-ups mostly utilize a genericpalate of umbrellas, chairs, paint, beer and food trucks -- albeit elements that are inexpensive, quick,and often delicious.

But I'm worried that artists are becoming marginalized in this process, as placemaking subsumesthe original and creative thinking that is implicit in public art. Quick solutions may leave us with awarm feeling, but incredible artworks become etched in the mind though personal experience.

Those of us working in the public art field -- artists, administrators, and curators - are alreadyequipped to participate in placemaking because, to some degree, every public art project is bydesign an interactive process involving a mix of artists, architects, design professionals, communityresidents, civic leaders, politicians, approval agencies, funding agencies, and construction teams. Ibelieve that the challenge of this communal process is to enhance, rather than limit, the artist'sinvolvement. (How to choose the "right" artist, working with communities, and overcomingbureaucracy are other topics altogether, for another time.)

Artists, administrators, and curators need to telescope our public art experience to designers,planners, and communities. We should be nurturing a commitment to invention and cooperation -not compromise.

I am optimistic. There are many examples of the radical difference an artist can make when engagedin the planning stages of a project. In Philadelphia, in 2013 our city's Department of ParksRecreation developed The Oval, a seasonal park experience on the site of a municipal parking lot onthe Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Programmatically, The Oval was a great success. For 2014, it'ssecond year, the aPA proposed working with an artist to create an original environmental setting.

The Oval on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2013. Adesign firm conceived a beach theme that was carried out the first year. Photo M. Fischetti for Visit

Philadelphia!/GPTMC

Magic Carpet, Candy Coated (2014). The Oval on theBenjamin Franklin Parkway in 2014, its second year. Photo Ashley Lippolis for the Association forPublic Art.

In cooperation with the Philadelphia Department of Parks Recreation and the Fairmount ParkConservancy, the aPA commissioned Magic Carpet by artist Candy Coated (formerly Candy Depew)who transformed the same eight-acre lot into an exuberant environment of color, pattern, illusion,and movement. The artwork featured an elaborate arrangement of the artist's signature decorativemotifs rendered in paint and vinyl, brilliantly colored sand and sandboxes, 3-D illusion art, fabricbanners, among other unique and interactive attractions. See below for more photos from 2013(before) and 2014 (after).

The Oval on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2013. Abeach theme with gaming areas. Photo M. Fischetti for Visit Philadelphia!/GPTMC.

Magic Carpet (vinyl detail), Candy Coated (2014). PhotoKat Zagaria, a winner of the Magic Carpet photo contest on Instagram.

Magic Carpet (sandbox detail), Candy Coated (2014).Photo Penny Balkin Bach for the Association for Public Art.

Candy Coated's bold, whimsical, and colorful installation completely reimagined The Oval, activatingand unifying the space and engaging people with rich sensory experiences: artist-designed diamond-shaped sandboxes filled with glowing pink sand; giant vinyl butterflies under foot, blue circlepatterned hopscotch; a "light blast" optical illusion; colorful globes in trees above; and oversizedpainted buoys.

Magic Carpet brought together installation art, popular culture, fantasy, fashion, printmaking, and apassion for vivid color, which presented exciting programming possibilities for The Oval.

If you've successfully included artists in placemaking projects, broadcast it and try to influence thosewho have not. If you haven't included artists early in the process, think how much better yourproject might have been if you did.

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