Harriet F. Senie

A Companion to Public Art is the only scholarly volume to examine the main issues, theories, and practices of public art on a comprehensive scale. Edited by Cher Krause Knight and Harriet F. Senie, two distinguished scholars in this burgeoning field, it brings together established and emergent scholars ranging from art and architectural historians, critics, public art curators and art administrators, as well as artists.

With 19 essays in four sections—tradition, site, audience, and critical frameworks—the Companion assesses public art as it is taught, thought about, and talked about within the field, and as it is conceived in the public and popular imagination. The essays discuss important topics in the field, including valorizing victims, public art in urban landscapes and on university campuses, the role of digital technologies, jury selection committees, time and memory, patronage, and the intersection of public art and mass media. In addition to perspectives from scholars and professionals in the field, it contains contributions by artists. These “artist’s philosophy” essays address larger questions about an artist’s body of work and the field of public art, by Julian Bonder, eteam (Hajoe Moderegger and Franziska Lamprecht), John Craig Freeman, Antony Gormley, Suzanne Lacy, Caleb Neelon, Tatzu Nishi, Greg Sholette, and Alan Sonfist.

Authoritative and indispensible, this guide is essential reading for anyone involved in the teaching, creating, commissioning, and contemplating of public art.