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 but
instead 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, through
the narratives and knowledge it projects and secondly, through its authorship and placement it
teaches us who has the right and the power to place art in public space. Furthermore in the instance
of permanent public art, duration and time endorse, and normalise these narratives and pedagogical meanings. This article utilises this perspective to explore how community involvement
in the making of permanent public art might create a different type of pedagogy through
providing opportunities to offer other narratives to its audience and a more democratic alternative
to the authorship of art in public space. Within the concept of cultural democracy, these artworks
not only enable community members to individually express themselves in