The Importance of Community-Engaged Public Art
1996: Emily van Lidth de Jeude working with children to cover a formerly-neo-nazi-decorated wall in the Netherlands with a kid-designed mural. The child in this photo is now a professional artist living in Gibsons, BC, and still makes meaningful public art to improve her community. Open letter to Bowen Island Municipal Council, Mayor and CAO: Dear Mayor, council members, and CAO, I write in response to the voiced concern about our "art fund". This relatively small fund is an essential aspect of our community's future prosperity. First of all, to get the obvious out of the way, the commonly-held belief that artists should volunteer their time (and often materials) to produce public art is absurd, for the same reason we'd never expect contractors to build our public buildings without pay, and donate supplies. Artists have bodies and families that need to be fed and housed just like the other contracto...
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