Public Art and Public Agencies: Integrating Art into Municipal Planning, Process, and Service Delivery

Tuesday, October 8, 2:30pm – 5:30pm

Organized and presented by Gary Steuer, President, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation.

Moderated by Andrew Stober, Chief of Staff, Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities. Presented by Jane Golden, Executive Director, City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

Philadelphia is known for its thriving culture of collaboration between public art and public agencies, an ecology partially shaped by Gary Steuer’s leadership of the Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy and Jane Golden’s thirty-year tenure with the Mural Arts Program. Moderator Andrew Stober will lead Steuer and Golden in a conversation about the complexity and potential for this kind of art practice and how it has been made possible by innovative public/private funding partnerships. The session will offer a glimpse into two Mural Arts projects: Southeast by Southeast, a social practice approach to working with the city’s Burmese and Bhutanese refugee populations, and Design in Motion: the Recycling Truck Project.

Session Location:
Southeast by Southeast, a program of Mural Arts and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, is a project that celebrates the diversity and resilience of new immigrants from all over the world, with a focus on South Philadelphia’s growing Bhutanese and Burmese populations. Through the creation of public art pieces and a five-month series of workshops ending in October 2013, the community will be engaged in activities and discussions that address the impact of resettlement and ways the community can support and appreciate new Philadelphians. Imbedded within the community, programming and events take place at the program’s storefront on South 7th Street.