We are committed to activating, inspiring, and advocating for public art that advances justice, health, and human dignity across the country. In June 2019, Forecast launched equity audits for public art collections based on a deep commitment to address the long-overdue inequities, racism, invisibility and biases that exist in our public art collections.

We partnered with St. Louis Park, MN to complete a pilot equity audit led by Forecast consultant Tricia Heuring. We are seeing the need for equity audits now more than ever as public art administrators face this challenge and commit to more equitable, fair and just practices.

Forecast’s Public Art Program and Collection Equity Review for St. Louis Park is a valuable assessment with concrete steps to implement and improve our processes, and ultimately our public art collection.

– Sean Walther, Planning and Zoning Supervisor, City of St. Louis Park

Our equity audits use comprehensive benchmarking tools to identify inequities in public art collections as related to race, gender, immigration status, and more. We help program administrators, committees and communities identify gaps, prioritize initiatives, set targets and other program goals, assign accountability, and measure the impact of initiatives.

Public art is never neutral. The time is long overdue to reckon with systemic racism and inequities in our country’s public art policies, practices, and collections and address our collective trauma. We know from four decades in the public art field that cultural appropriation, art-washing, public art deserts, unethical community engagement practices, and systemic funding and policy barriers keep BIPOC artists and communities from fair, just and equitable representation in our country’s public art. We welcome cities, counties, states, parks, universities, museums and others to answer the demands for change. Artists, youth, protestors, organizers and activists are leading the way with a wave of anger and pain fueled creativity rising from and covering our streets and demanding justice for George Floyd and all Black lives. Protesters across the globe are challenging, damaging, and destroying public statues and monuments representing our country’s violent histories. We are ready to help you commit to a deep examination and a radical reimagining of our approach to public art and public space.

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PUBLIC ART EQUITY AUDIT INFO SESSIONS

“WHAT IS AN EQUITY AUDIT?”

Our Public Art Program + Collection Equity Audits are comprehensive benchmarking tools to identify discrepancies in public art collections as related to race, gender, immigration status, and more. We will help you identify gaps, prioritize initiatives, set targets and other program goals, assign accountability, and measure the impact of initiatives.

What is covered

• Defining equity dimensions that will be considered and assessed
• Reviewing current pieces in the collection for multiple EDI factors, such as:
  • Themes of artworks
  • Artists who have created the artworks
  • Locations of artworks
• Creating goal and value statements around equity in the public art collection
• Suggesting initiatives for future public art projects, prioritizing these initiatives, and assigning responsibility for them
• Strategies for measuring impact of EDI initiatives

What is Involved

• Meetings with key stakeholders to define goals, set expectations, understand biases, and determine opportunity areas
• Case studies of equitable public art projects and collections
• Thorough analysis of existing individual public art projects and the entire collection through an equity lens
• Interpretation of data found through the analysis
• Understanding how to sustain a bias-free and equitable public art collection

What is included

• Two consultants for a collection audit [actual scope to be determined between Forecast and Collections Manager]
• A reference manual detailing the audit activities and suggested initiatives
• A framework for annual collection self-audits
• Readings, resources, and tools

What We Do

• Work with you to define goals and values for this project
• Analyze the current collection
• Identify gaps and suggest strategies and initiatives to fill these gaps
• Create suggestions for maintaining an equitable public art collection
• Create self-auditing tools and trainings

What You Do

• Provide information of your current public art collection
• Help set goals and values for this project, and   connect us to any key stakeholders who should also be involved in that process
• Look over a draft of suggestions and help to assign responsibility to new initiatives

CONTACT US TO LEARN MORE

Learn more about Forecast’s Planning + Engagement offerings.