We’re pleased to share our digital publication FORWARD. We search the world to uplift creative community-focused solutions to critical issues. This 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, 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.
FORWARD Issue 8: Civic Health
The eighth issue in our FORWARD series spotlights civic health and engagement work on civic knowledge, relationships, and transformation.
The publication is guest-edited by Richard Young, the Founder and Executive Director at CivicLex, a nonprofit in Lexington, Kentucky dedicated to strengthening civic health at the local level. As Richard shares in his introduction, the work in these pages reminds us that democracy isn’t actually about institutions, policies, or elections. It’s about the everyday, and the possibilities that bind us together.
Readers will also find a featured interview from Reanne Estrada and Mike Blockstein of Public Matters, a creative studio for civic engagement. The two of them joyfully practice good mischief to humanize civic systems, using art as a lever to center community and inspire radical change.
Our guest curator, Forecast’s Director of Planning + Engagement Ebony Dumas, curated Public Art Now through the lens of creating with community. Including, for example, a music-making tree sculpture that also serves as a community gathering space, and an artist using AI to create Afrofuturist landscapes that reenvision public spaces to center Black people, Black culture, and Black aesthetics.
The issue also holds a Toolkit filled with resources for working creatively in civic health and engagement, along with our popular Dream Job description, which, for this issue, is presented as a Dream Ordinance. Chicago-based cultural strategist Amanda Carlson offers this measure, and asks us to think about what percentage of a local community’s budget should be dedicated to artist-led work, and how that money should flow.
Browse the publication for inspiration and practical ideas to embrace arts & culture as the civic infrastructure that it is.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new efforts intersecting public art and civic health.
Want to sponsor a FORWARD issue? Contact info@forecastpublicart.org.
FORWARD Issue 7: Monuments & Memorials
Our seventh edition in the FORWARD series explores how artists are challenging systems of power through new monuments, in a shifting commemorative landscape. Featured projects spotlight these shifts happening under site interpretation, storytelling, public participation, and new aesthetics. Women, nonbinary, and trans artists are featured in all case study categories.
Made in collaboration with New Monuments Task Force (NMTF), the publication is guest-edited by NMTF’s Claire Flanegin, an architectural and urban historian, and with the vision of the entire NMTF team. Readers will find a featured essay from NMTF founder and artist Cheyenne Concepcion about the destruction of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and how our monuments reflect and shape our nation. “We have the power to reclaim and destroy colonial myths,” writes Concepcion, “and wipe the slate clean for new monuments that exemplify inclusion, belonging, honesty, and shared humanity.” As our sixth Public Art Now guest curator, artist and NMTF member Anna Lisa Escobedo presents five public artworks that create impact through engaging history, storytelling, and collective memory—including, for example, a 9-ton Olmec head that trolls Elon Musk, an interactive wax replica of the Lincoln memorial, and a guerrilla project not sanctioned by its host city. These works, she says, “are seeds of possibilities and imagination for the future of monuments and memorials.”
The issue also contains a Toolkit filled with resources for working creatively in monument- and memorials-related fields. In this issue’s Dream Job description, Indigenous, nonbinary, and fat artist, educator, and bachata dancer Sen Mendez imagines a Cultural Vibe Rizzard who would practice decolonized reclamation. Browse these pages to come away with inspiration as well as practical ideas for how you can reimagine monuments and memorials in your own community.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new efforts intersecting public art and commemorative works.
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 air pollution, heat extremes, floods, population displacement, and more. In each of this issue’s case studies we highlight the specific roles artists are playing in the effort to tackle climate change. These include: Amplifying Urgency, Mitigating a Climate Threat, Facilitating Community-Led Solutions, Communicating Complex Data, and Innovating Preparedness.
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. Amal Khalaf, Director of Programmes at Cubitt and Civic Curator at the Serpentine Galleries, is the issue’s Public Art Now guest curator. Among other questions, for her collection, Khalaf asks, How do artists respond to the urgencies related to social, climate, and spatial injustice, both in our cities and in rural contexts?
Additionally, readers will find a Toolkit made in partnership with the US Water Alliance (USWA), filled with resources for working creatively in climate-related fields, along with our popular Dream Job description. Benny Starr, the inaugural One Water Artist-in-Residence at the USWA, 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, his Dream Job makes the case for guaranteed income for artists at a time when artists, leaders, and communities across the US are seeing a growing appeal for programs where artists are paid regularly.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new work intersecting public art and climate.
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.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new work intersecting public art and housing.
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.
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.
We continue to update this living publication as we learn about new work in the field of public art and transportation.
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.
FORWARD Programming
Curious about agencies embedding climate artists-in-residence? Want to know how public artists are critical partners on climate resilience, or about how Native artists are engaging the public realm? Maybe you’re curious about how artists are partnering with housing organizations to help bring about housing justice? Find conversation on all these topics in our FORWARD series videos. We hosted conversations with field experts about overcoming bureaucratic racism in the design field, artists addressing transportation equity and public health challenges, and more.
Find speaker bios and more about each program.
CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF FORWARD, AND BEYOND
Forecast is proud to celebrate nearly five 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 five years of eight issues and twelve panel discussions helmed by six guest editors, ten featured essayists & interviewees, and six 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. Artists are valuable partners for solving civic challenges, with their capacity for imagination and their connections to community voices that could otherwise be lost or ignored. With this series, we aim to uplift new voices and help people experience spaces in new ways.
We continue updating these live publications. The content in each one 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, climate, monuments & memorials, and civic health, we hope you’ll continue enjoying and sharing these thoughtful solutions to civic challenges we face together.
A big THANK YOU to:
- Our former Public Art Review editor in chief and FORWARD Issue 1 editor Karen Olson.
- Guest editors: Ben Stone, Mallory Rukhsana Nezam, Joseph Kunkel, Paul Singh, Claire Flanegin, and Richard Young.
- Featured essayists and interviewees: Dr. Mindy Fullilove, Charles T. Brown, Andrea Jenkins, Dr. André de Quadros, Jeremy Liu, Dr. Lisa Yun Lee, Tiff Beatty, Cheyenne Concepcion, Reanne Estrada and Mike Blockstein.
- Public Art Now guest curators: Tricia Heuring, Amina Cooper, Mary V. Bordeaux, Jessica Mehta, Amal Khalaf, Anna Lisa Escobedo, and Ebony Dumas.
- Contributors: Dr. Meghan Venable-Thomas, Lynn M. Cuny, Scott Oshima, Benny Starr, Sen Mendez, and Amanda Carlson.
- Writers: Geraldine Slevin, Camille LeFevre, Dan Murphy, and Ben Stanley.
- Senior Editor: Jon Spayde.
- Copy Editor: Loma Huh.
- Editorial Assistant: Emme Sugnet
- Layout designers: Manuel Miranda and Fred Pirlot.
- Partner + contributing organizations: The University of Florida’s Center for Arts and Medicine, ArtPlace America, Smart Growth America, PolicyLink, MASS Design Group, NeighborWorks America, the US Water Alliance, and New Monuments Taskforce.
- Issue 4 sponsor Franz Mayer of Munich.
- Issue 5 sponsor Vicki Scuri Siteworks.
Each of these partners contributed to a virtual space that honors the creative collaborations and incredible solutions that arise when artists are valued project facilitators.
Photo credits | Dr. Mindy Fullilove: Ryan Lash. Andrea Jenkins: Scott Strebble.
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.
Passionate about storytelling and uplifting a variety of creative voices? Connect with our community of creative changemakers! 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. We are excited to partner with you to tell dynamic stories of impactful public art. Contact us to learn more.
(651) 641-1128
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