Creating Cultural Icons with Public Art

The very first speaker at the recent "Public Art 360" Conference in Chapel Hill was Winston-Salem native Glenn Weiss, a leading critical voice in the field of public art and guide at the helpful blog Aesthetic Grounds, which both samples his critical eye and provides some of the best web trails at the nexus of disciplines and interests that converge in public art projects. Glenn has also pulled together videos of successful public art installations and events (Newcastle-on-Tyne's "Nocturne" bridge illumination project is featured in a video on the sidebar on this page), and offers photos of his visits to installations around the world.

One of Glenn's photo albums is actually a presentation of his on what makes successful "Icons in Public Art". Interestingly, he begins the presentation with the happy accident of the tin coffee pot, the unofficial hospitality symbol of his hometown, Winston-Salem. The over-sized coffee pot was an advertising gimmick, suspended in front of a store along old Main Street, and now sits in a grassy median island at the northern edge of Old Salem. Though it is a sentimental favorite of locals, I think it has surpassed the possible kitsch of its advertising origins by reminding residents and guests of something about the value of memory and hospitality in the town, not to mention the taste of the special coffee that is a part of Moravian Lovefeast traditions. In his Chapel Hill talk recently, Weiss noted that while critics often evaluate the success of public art based on a vocabulary of professional art criticism, communities consider public art successful if it becomes a cultural icon, or a photo opportunity; if it makes enjoyable a pedestrian space; or if it solves some other non-artistic problem for the area. The transportation corridor work coming to Winston-Salem offers plenty of opportunities both for "problem-solving" and successful place-making - in the eyes of the local community and of professional art critics. We've added this week a number of links to Public Art sites on the web that Glenn and others have suggested, as well as a sample of other helpful local links to those thinking about public art in Winston-Salem.