What an inspiring morning! Our friends and supporters joined us to hear the inside scoop on our groundbreaking work. At this free morning event we dove into our plans for the future, both for Forecast and the public art field. In addition to our executive director Theresa Sweetland, supporters heard from Saint Paul council member Mitra Jalali , Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins, and other community leaders, practitioners, and artists about how we’re centering justice, health, and human dignity throughout our work. Those joining in person enjoyed coffee + pastries prior to the main programming. The event program ran from 9-10 am CDT for all attendees. Those joining in-person had the opportunity to meet and mingle with artists, creatives, city planners, architects, designers, community leaders, philanthropists, and more. Those joining online also had the chance to mingle prior to the program. In-person space was limited and we followed current COVID-related guidelines at the time of the event.
Program video available soon.

Guest curator Amina Cooper says in her introduction to the Public Art Now collection in FORWARD Issue #3, “Across the full range of materials, styles, and degrees of permanence, public artworks by Black artists have made essential contributions to the built environment and to community spaces.” This second Public Art Now selection in the FORWARD series features projects by Simone Leigh, Abigail DeVille, Dr. Fahamu Pecou, Jessica Moss, and April Banks. Amina and artists Lava Thomas and Martha Jackson Jarvis discuss public art policy and their experiences as Black artists breaking into this field, the challenges they’ve encountered mounting their first projects, and policy changes they would like to see.

Watch the conversation

This 90-minute, live, interactive course helps you build a functional vocabulary and familiarity with what public art can do and ways it comes to be. Public art supports a variety of goals and aspirations of many towns, cities, and neighborhoods, as well as the visions of many artists. How public art is planned, designed, implemented, and experienced will be reviewed. Case studies feature public art projects and how cities engage the public, select artists, and plan for and manage public art programs. The course is especially helpful for public policymakers, community and economic development practitioners, and others involved in planning and placemaking. This includes artists, community activists, and arts managers. This course was taught by Jen Krava of Forecast Public Art and Tom Borrup of Creative Community Builders.
Learn more about our customized trainings.

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Making it Public is a FREE 5-week workshop designed for emerging artists interested in exploring how to make their art creations public. The program will host guest speakers, discuss the field, profession, history, and contemporary issues of public art, and understand the creative process. The workshop will be conducted in English and Spanish. Limited to 30 artists; each artist who completes all workshops will receive $300 to create their own mini project. NOTICE: This Making it Public session is only for LatinX artists living in Minnesota.

Want to find out more about reviewing race, gender, and more in your public art collection? Our equity audits use comprehensive benchmarking tools to identify inequities in public art collections as related to race, gender, immigration status, and more. Watch this info session recording on Forecast’s YouTube channel.

Want to find out more about reviewing race, gender, and more in your public art collection? Our equity audits use comprehensive benchmarking tools to identify inequities in public art collections as related to race, gender, immigration status, and more. Watch a recording of this info session from April 20, 2021 on Forecast’s YouTube channel.