The Failures of Public Art and Participation

This collection of original essays takes a multi-disciplinary approach to explore the theme of failure through the broad spectrum of public art and social practice. The anthology brings together practicing artists, curators, activists, art writers, administrators, planners, and educators from around the world to offer differing perspectives on the many facets of failure in commissioning, planning, producing, evaluating, and engaging communities in the continually evolving field of art in the public realm. As such, this book offers a survey of currently unexplored and interconnected thinking, and provides a much-needed critical voice to the commissioning of public and participatory arts. The volume includes case studies from the UK, the US, China, Cuba, and Denmark, as well as discussions of digital public art collections. The Failures of Public Art and Participation will be of interest for students and scholars of visual arts, design and architecture interested in how art in the public realm fits within social and political contexts.

Cameron Cartiere is a Professor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Vancouver, Canada). She is the author of RE/Placing Public Art, co-author of The Manifesto of Possibilities, and co-editor of The Practice of Public Art (with Shelly Willis), The Everyday Practice of Public Art (with Martin Zebracki), and The Routledge Companion to Art in the Public Realm (with Leon Tan) Anthony Schrag is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Policy and Arts Management at Queen Margaret University (Edinburgh, Scotland). He is an artist and researcher and the central focus of his work examines the role of art in participatory and public contexts, with a specific focus on social conflict, agonism and ethics. He has published numerous papers and produced social practice projects both nationally and internationally.

CONTENTS List of illustrations Acknowledgments List of contributors Introduction Cameron Cartiere and Anthony Schrag Part 1 Failure of the Process - Failure of Process: considering permanent works in an impermanent time Cameron Cartiere - Failure as Success: Sam Durant's Scaffold, Angela Two Stars' Okciyapi, and the conundrum of critique. Erika Doss - On Monumental Failure: A conversation Paul Farber and Kanyinsola Anifowoshe - Failing Well: Exploring the value of failure through the UK national roll out of Arts on Prescription Frances Williams - There's always a story: Epic failings of the American percent-for-art model Shelly Willis and Janet Zweig - Taking Inventory: digital public art collections and the challenge of physical distance Lori Goldstein - Running across subsidence, following leaks: The ordinary failure of public art and public infrastructure services Becky Shaw Part 2 Failure of Participation - The Failure of Participation: the demos is in the detail Anthony Schrag - We Thought We Were Going To Change The World! Socially engaged art as cruel optimism Sophie Hope - Tarde de Sándwiches: The failure of participation in contemporary Cuban art Celia Irina González Álvarez - How Intimate Public and Participatory Art Fails the City Leon Tan - No impact on cultural participation? - An analysis of the objective of increasing and widening cultural participation in European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 Louise Ejgod Hansen and Hans-Peter Degn - Public Art Ethics and Failure: A postcolonial perspective on failure and the Centre for Political Beauty Anika Marschall - Dare to Fail: socially engaged public art and its challenges in contemporary China Meiqin Wang - Epilogue: Reconsidering failure Harriet Senie References Index