We’re pleased to share our digital publication FORWARD and a curated selection of articles from our closed print magazine Public Art Review. Passionate about storytelling and uplifting a variety of creative voices? Connect with our community of creative changemakers! We are excited to partner with you to tell dynamic stories of impactful public art. Contact us to learn more.
FORWARD
This new digital publication and conversation series highlights how artists are partnering with cities, institutions and communities to courageously tackle the vital issues of our time.
FORWARD aims to show decision-makers how artists are critical partners in addressing pressing issues in America, from public health to the fate of our climate. We invite policy makers, public health workers, urban planners, architects, artists, city managers, funders—anyone interested in working to advance justice, health and human dignity—to engage, contribute and learn with us. FORWARD is free, allowing us to reach people anywhere, without barriers to access. We hope you will read and share the content widely.
UPCOMING—FORWARD Issue 6: Climate
Focused on the fate of our climate, the 6th FORWARD installment highlights how art and creativity are raising awareness, engaging vulnerable communities, and spurring action worldwide—with artists as valuable partners. Including inspiring case studies spanning the globe, the issue explores strong creative projects and cross-sector partnerships focused on public health, heat extremes, floods and drought, population displacement, and more.
The issue also includes our fifth installment of Public Art Now, a recurring collection of selected works featuring leading voices sharing public art of the moment. We’re thrilled to share that Amal Khalaf is our next Public Art Now guest curator. Khalaf is a curator and artist and currently Director of Programmes at Cubitt and Civic Curator at the Serpentine Galleries. There and in other contexts she has developed residencies, exhibitions, and collaborative research projects at the intersection of art and social justice.
Additionally, readers will find a Toolkit filled with resources for working creatively in climate-related fields, along with our popular Dream Job description. Benny Starr is the creative mind behind the issue’s Dream Job. A hip-hop artist and creator focusing on the artistic process, collaboration, and social practice, Starr is the Senior Fellow, Arts and Culture at the US Water Alliance. Benny works with the Alliance to infuse arts and culture-based strategies into thinking, problem-solving, and programming. He was named one of Grist’s 50 Fixers of 2021, a list that includes emerging leaders in climate, sustainability, and equity who are creating change across the nation.
Watch for the FORWARD6 release this fall.
Voices in upcoming FORWARD6—Public Art Now guest curator Amal Khalaf (right), and the creative behind this issue’s Dream Job, Benny Starr (left).
Want to sponsor or partner with us on this issue? Contact info@forecastpublicart.org.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new work intersecting public art and housing.
FORWARD Issue 5: Housing
Created in partnership with NeighborWorks America, this issue highlights projects and partnerships that use art and creativity to raise visibility and spur action around critical housing issues. NeighborWorks vice president of community initiatives, Paul Singh, is our guest editor for the issue, which includes a featured interview with Dr. Lisa Yun Lee, cultural activist and executive director of the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM), and spoken word artist, emcee, and educator, Tiff Beatty, who is NPHM’s program director of arts, culture and public policy.
Along with inspiring case studies and a Toolkit packed with resources for working creatively in the housing sector, the issue includes a Public Art Now collection of selected works guest-curated by Jessica Mehta, PhD, a multi-award-winning Aniyunwiya interdisciplinary author and artist, and Forecast’s Change Lab Research Fellow focusing on Indigenous visibility in public art. For her collection, she selected five Native artists and their works who represent a broad spectrum of the exciting, Indigenized, de-colonized happenings taking place in public spheres across our shared lands.
FORWARD Issue 4:
Redefining Sustainable Design in Indian Country
As Joseph Kunkel writes in his opening essay, “the work happening in Indian Country showcases how tribally led and non-tribally led organizations are lifting up Indigenous ways of thinking, represented through design and the arts. My hope is that we as a country can all do a better job of listening—not only to our Indigenous populations, but to all of our under-represented communities—when we consider design, art, and architecture.” We are thrilled to release this exciting collaboration with MASS Design Group, the newest installment in the FORWARD series.
The publication features the vision of MASS’s director of Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab, Joseph Kunkel, who served as the guest editor. Browse through these beautiful pages to learn about exemplary projects around the country that elevate local voices and cultures to incorporate their shared stories, histories, and heritage into design. Plus, read a feature essay by artist, social impact strategist, and real estate developer Jeremy Liu, about how designers and civic practice artists can guide America back from bureaucratic racism and injustice. View guest curator Mary V. Bordeaux’s Public Art Now collection highlighting five artists who all announce Lakota identity to the world and expand upon popular understandings of public art. As with each of our issues, readers will also find a Toolkit packed with resources and how-tos.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new work intersecting public art and design.
special Public Art Now preview from FORWARD Issue 4
A special installment was offered as a preview from the fourth issue of FORWARD—an early release of Public Art Now (PAN), a recurring collection of selected works in each issue. Featuring leading voices sharing public art of the moment, each guest-curated PAN includes current works that move public art forward. This collection from the PAN series is curated by Mary V. Bordeaux, (Sicangu Lakota), a doctoral candidate at Saint Mary’s University exploring Lakota women’s leadership and Lakota epistemology, and co-founder and creative director of Racing Magpie, a collaborative space with a Native art gallery and artist studios in Mnilúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwah (Rapid City, SD). Mary asks, what does public art mean to me, as a Lakota person? What would my ancestors say if I asked them for their thoughts about public art? Her collection highlights five artists who all announce Lakota identity to the world and expand upon popular understandings of public art.
Enjoy this special installment from Issue 4 on its own, or visit the collection in the full fourth issue.
FORWARD Issue 3: Community Safety
FORWARD’s third installment focuses on community safety, a critical issue nationwide and especially urgent in our Minneapolis-Saint Paul community. Guest editor cultural organizer and creative consultant Mallory Rukhsana Nezam asks in her introduction, “So what could ‘public safety’ look like if reframed as community safety? What are the new systems we can dream into being, and what will it take to make them a reality? What could it mean to collectively acknowledge harm, to protect, to heal, to course-correct, to generate wellness?” Browse the issue to find artists stewarding creative community safety initiatives. With featured essays from Andrea Jenkins, Minneapolis City Council Vice President, poet, and transgender activist, together with an additional, global perspective offered by music educator and human rights activist Dr. André de Quadros.
This issue also holds the second Public Art Now collection, guest curated by Amina Cooper, Forecast’s Change Lab Research Fellow on Racial Justice in Public Art. Readers will also find a Toolkit created in partnership with PolicyLink to engage community safety, arts and culture. Plus, FORWARD’s recurring Dream Job description, written by Dr. Meghan Venable-Thomas, who imagines a role for putting a healing-focused creative to work to improve community development and deepen a sense of safety for marginalized communities.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new work intersecting public art and community safety.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new work in the field of public art and transportation.
FORWARD Issue 2: Transportation
Guest edited by Ben Stone, Director of Arts and Culture at Smart Growth America (SGA), this second issue was created in collaboration with SGA, a program of Transportation for America. It focuses on the intersection of public art and transportation, exploring how artists create more responsive, equitable and sustainable solutions. Charles T. Brown, senior researcher and adjunct professor at Rutgers University and a fellow of the OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, provides the featured essay, Moving Beyond the Aesthetics and Pageantry of Equity and Inclusion in Transportation.
Also including the inaugural special collection Public Art Now by guest curator Tricia Heuring, FORWARD#2 is packed with thoughtful commentary on the latest public art of this moment, highlighting how artists lead with creative solutions on issues that intersect with our daily lives. A Toolkit includes resources for making connections between art and transportation, with talking points from transportation professionals, artists, and administrators to sell the transportation sector on working with artists and the benefit of such an approach.
FORWARD Issue 1: Public Health
Focused on public health, the first issue of FORWARD was created in collaboration with the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine and ArtPlace America. Edited by Karen Olson, Forecast’s longtime Editor-in-Chief for Public Art Review, and an incredible steward of the world’s public art stories. With collections of case studies organized around Racism, Collective Trauma, Mental Health, and more, this inaugural publication guides potential collaborators through creatively approaching challenge areas in public health. The foundational research and framework behind this issue comes from Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-Sector Collaboration, the groundbreaking 2019 white paper created by The University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine & ArtPlace America with support from The Pabst Steinmetz Foundation and many dedicated individuals. With permission, we’ve used their framework, translating it for a new audience dealing with 2020 issues. We expanded a few of their case studies and added more recent ones.
The issue also includes a featured essay on partnering with creative problem solvers to address public health challenges, by social psychiatrist and professor of urban policy and health Dr. Mindy Fullilove. Additionally, readers will find a toolkit filled with resources for making connections between art and public health, together with a suggested dream job description.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new work in the field of public art and public health.
CELEBRATING TWO YEARS OF FORWARD, AND BEYOND
Forecast is proud to celebrate two years since the launch of FORWARD, our digital publication and conversation series highlighting how artists are partnering with communities to tackle the vital issues of our time.
After two years of five issues and six panel discussions helmed by five guest editors, seven featured essayists, and four guest curators—all uplifting the creative solutions of dozens of artists to a consistent audience of more than 3,000—we are just getting started.
We continue updating these live publications with content that remains relevant as long as we are collectively solving these critical community issues. From public health, transportation, and community safety, to sustainable design in Indian Country, housing, and much more on the horizon, we hope you’ll continue enjoying and sharing these thoughtful solutions to civic challenges we face together.
Stay tuned for the next issue focused on the intersection of public art and climate, which is slated for release in fall of 2023.
FORWARD voices from Issues 1-5. Top row: Karen Olson, Dr. Mindy Fullilove, Ben Stone, Charles T. Brown; Row 2: Tricia Heuring, Mallory Rukhsana Nezam, Andrea Jenkins, Dr. André de Quadros, Amina Cooper; Row 3: Dr. Meghan Venable-Thomas, Joseph Kunkel, Jeremy Liu, Mary V. Bordeaux, Lynn M. Cuny; Row 4: Paul Singh, Dr. Lisa Yun Lee, Tiff Beatty, Scott Oshima, Jessica Mehta.
A big thank you to: guest editors Karen Olson, Ben Stone, Mallory Rukhsana Nezam, Joseph Kunkel, and Paul Singh; featured essayists Dr. Mindy Fullilove, Charles T. Brown, Andrea Jenkins, Dr. André de Quadros, Jeremy Liu, Dr. Lisa Yun Lee, and Tiff Beatty; Public Art Now guest curators Tricia Heuring, Amina Cooper, Mary V. Bordeaux, and Jessica Mehta; contributors Dr. Meghan Venable-Thomas, Lynn M. Cuny, and Scott Oshima, as well as partner organizations The University of Florida’s Center for Arts and Medicine, ArtPlace America, Smart Growth America, PolicyLink, MASS Design Group, NeighborWorks America, Issue 4 sponsor Franz Mayer of Munich, and Issue 5 sponsor Vicki Scuri Siteworks, all of whom contributed to a virtual space that honors the creative collaborations and incredible solutions that arise when artists are valued project facilitators.
CONNECT WITH OUR COMMUNITY OF CREATIVE CHANGEMAKERS
Do you want to connect with artists, designers, and cultural leaders? Collaborate with us on an upcoming issue of FORWARD!
Through FORWARD, we highlight how artists are partnering with cities, institutions, and communities to courageously tackle the vital issues of our time. We invite policy makers, public health workers, urban planners, architects, artists, city managers, funders, and others to get in touch.
Featured FORWARD Content
SPECIAL PUBLISHING PROJECT
Forecast collaborated with the ArtPlace team to project manage their book ArtPlace: 10 Years, telling their story in a dynamic way.
Our team mapped out how to tell the story of ArtPlace, and contracted the writers, editors, designer, digital platform, and printer to produce the book. Through all the challenges of 2020, we worked side by side with ArtPlace to get this publication ready in time to launch at their final Summit in October 2020.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT, READ THE BOOK ONLINE, PURCHASE A PRINT COPY, DOWNLOAD THE BOOK PDF
PUBLIC ART REVIEW
With the launch of FORWARD, we closed our magazine Public Art Review after 31 wonderful years. Past issues are available to browse digitally for free on Forecast’s Issuu page.
While we hope you’ll join us and enjoy FORWARD, we invite you to continue to find inspiration from PAR on our site. Explore curated content covering topics ranging from Agriculture + Food to Workforce Development; you’ll find the full list on the Explore More section below. For further inspiration, browse select Projects We Love, and dive deep into the past two issues, 58 and 59. You can also flip through digitized PDFs of past issues of most of the print magazine on Forecast’s Issuu page; a preview of issue 59 is linked below.
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