What Does Public Art Teach Us? Public Art, Public Pedagogy and Community Participation in Making

Abstract

What does public art teach us? Although the meaning of any artwork is not directly received butinstead refracted by people’s personal responses, experiences and understandings, it can be argued that the artwork plays a pedagogical role. Public art teaches us in two ways, firstly, throughthe narratives and knowledge it projects and secondly, through its authorship and placement itteaches us who has the right and the power to place art in public space. Furthermore in the instanceof permanent public art, duration and time endorse, and normalise these narratives and pedagogical meanings. This article utilises this perspective to explore how community involvementin the making of permanent public art might create a different type of pedagogy throughproviding opportunities to offer other narratives to its audience and a more democratic alternativeto the authorship of art in public space. Within the concept of cultural democracy, these artworksnot only enable community members to individually express themselves in