When the sculptor Joel Shapiro created Blue, the piece that stands around the back of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, looking out over the Potomac River in Washington, he wanted to tap into a number of elements. The giant matchstick figure denotes movement and energy, risk and possibility. As Shapiro himself has said, it is supposed to reconfigure depending on how you look at it.
When the legendary sculptor Isamu Noguchi was tapped to redesign a blighted public park in Miami, he conceived of the project as a village green-a place where the community would gather with purpose, rather than just a manicured lawn. Originally built in 1925 after three years of construction, the park had fallen into complete disrepair by the time Noguchi was approached.
Outdoor art can become a crucial element of a place's identity, but long-term and permanent pieces face particularly complex conservation issues. As these works weather the elements-which can include intended and unintended public interaction-they are subjected to damage and decay, leaving those in charge of their care with the difficult and costly task of ongoing maintenance. But who exactly is responsible can be complicated, leading to disrepair, litigation and even the eventual removal of works.
SAN FRANCISCO - An inflatable giant with a cartoonish skull-and-crossbones head perches on the roof of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, like a car-lot tube man, advertising the exhibition KAWS: Family inside. The big balloon is various shades of gray, reminiscent of another large sculpture just a few blocks away on the Embarcadero Plaza, a 40-foot-tall naked woman fabricated from steel mesh.
What should Oshawa's arts and culture sector look like 10 years from now? That's a question city staff are asking the public as they prepare to create a new culture plan a roadmap intended to guide Oshawa's next decade of action to support cultural initiatives. This will be the city's second culture plan, replacing one that's been in place since 2014, says Catherine Richards, the city's senior manager of special events and culture.
For the second year in a row, Abu Dhabi 's Department of Culture and Tourism has organized a sprawling public art event focusing on sculptures, installations, and projections that incorporate light. The 2025-26 edition, called "The Light Compass," has a four-person curatorial team: artistic director Khai Hori (based in Singapore), and Alia Zaal Lootah, Munira Al Sayegh, and Mariam Alshehhi (all based in the UAE).
What makes this work so compelling is how it plays with reflection and perception. The polished aluminum surface doesn't just sit there looking pretty. It actively engages with its surroundings, capturing the shifting desert light, the blue Egyptian sky, and the ancient stones in a constantly changing display. Depending on where you stand and what time of day you visit, you're basically looking at a different artwork. It's responsive design taken to a literal, sculptural extreme.
A massive 40-year-old art sculpture is being demolished in Battery Park City to make way for the controversial North/West Battery Park City Resiliency (NWBPCR) project. The sculpture, titled Upper Room, by artist Ned Smyth, is a 20-column court featuring an elongated table with inlaid chessboards. The colonnade recalls ancient architecture and offered a public reprieve for New Yorkers. Commissioned in 1986, it was Battery Park City's first public art piece.
The 100 metre long Falcon Road underpass runs under the railways to the eastern side of Clapham Junction station and is the only route north-south under the railways in the area. Despite how busy it is, it's quite a shabby route, with two narrow pedestrian paths, the walls lined with stained and broken tiles, and the floor covered in pigeon droppings.
New York's community gardens have always been tiny pockets of magic-places where tomatoes, neighbors and the occasional rogue pigeon can peacefully coexist. Now they're bird sanctuaries of a more artistic kind, thanks to 21 freshly painted murals unveiled this week across gardens in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The project, a collaboration between the National Audubon Society, , GreenThumb and Gitler &_____ Gallery , splashes 24 climate-threatened bird species (plus more than 30 native plants) across walls, sheds and fences citywide.
In an eight-to-five vote on Monday (3 November), the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) voted to disassemble Armand Vaillancourt's namesake fountain. Two days prior, the San Francisco Chronicle that San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD) officials stated the fountain posed an "an immediate and serious hazard" and would propose dismantling the monumental fountain and storing it for up to three years, at a cost of $4.4m.
Palo Alto's recent Code:ART, a free, biennial interactive media art festival, reminds us of the breadth, depth and impact of public art in cities across our county. Code:ART transformed downtown Palo Alto into a vibrant playground of light, sound and imagination, reimagining the city's downtown streets, plazas and alleyways into a luminous landscape.
As global temperatures increase annually, communities across the world are facing the troubling fact that their infrastructure was built for a climate that no longer exists. Offering a glimpse of the potential issues to comae, residents of Phoenix, Arizona-the hottest city in the US, and fifth-largest-are grappling with life-threatening conditions, including recent reports of heatstroke and burns affecting its community of unhoused individuals.
"I'm not so interested in the expression of something. I'm more interested in what the material can do. So that's why I keep exploring," said artist, educator, and civic leader Ruth Asawa, reflecting on a six-decade-long career. Featuring some 300 artworks, Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective charts the artist's lifelong explorations of materials and forms in a variety of mediums, including wire sculpture, bronze casts, drawings, paintings, prints, and public works.
$4,500 Artist GrantsFeatured The Hopper Prize is accepting submissions for $4,500 and $1,000 artist grants, totaling $13,000. Two artists will each receive $4,500, and four artists will each receive $1,000. This is an international open call, and all visual media are eligible. The prize provides a direct path to get your work in front of an international community of curators, artists, gallerists, and arts administrators. Additional exposure is available via a 30-artist shortlist, online journal, and Instagram, currently reaching over 150,000.
Seven major artists will transform JFK's new $9.5 billion terminal into a soaring showcase of New York creativity. The journey through JFK's new Terminal One will be more gallery walk than security slog. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and New Terminal One just unveiled an ambitious public art and cultural program that turns the $9.5 billion international terminal, set to open in phases beginning 2026, into a full-on love letter to New York.
Open to the public since May 10, 2025, the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale has entered its final month before closing on November 23. Curated by Italian architect Carlo Ratti, this edition, titled "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective." has brought together over 750 participants across 65 national pavilions and 11 collateral events, making it one of the most expansive editions in the Biennale's history.
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