When was the last time you had a conversation with a stranger?
If you’re like most of us, you probably had to think for a bit to come up with an answer. When you live in a big city like Houston or Los Angeles, it can be hard to start conversations with people you don’t already know, even when they’re officemates or people out walking their dogs on the street that you see every day.
That’s where The League of Creative Interventionists comes in. Continue reading
If you’ve ever commuted in the city, you’ve been here.
You’re in a crowded train or bus, or maybe just alone in a car. It’s taken 20 minutes to move a mile during this particular commute. You cast longing glances at any pedestrians you can see walking by, and you’re pretty sure that the cyclist who carefully navigated between cars ten minutes ago is already two-to-three miles up the road.
But there’s a reason you didn’t bike or walk: maybe there are just too many cars and you don’t feel safe, or maybe there’s not even a sidewalk. Continue reading
It was easy for passersby to mistake the seemingly decayed fashion ads as long, lost relics of an abandoned department store in downtown Buffalo.
Continue reading
If you take time to walk around Los Angeles, you might find this cat, chicken and ninja mural.
Three weeks ago, Michael Schneider of the blog Franklin Avenue led a group of 300 from Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. It’s 18 miles, a seven-hour walk. To give you a comparable sense of the distance, walking the length of Manhattan is 13.4 miles, and walking along Lake Michigan from Chicago’s downtown Loop to north suburb Evanston is about 13 miles. In other words, it’s pretty far. Continue reading
In case you didn’t know, Levitt Pavilions is based in Los Angeles. While we don’t see snow in the city, many of us are originally from cold weather climates (Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska) or have spent significant time in places that can get very, very cold. So when we see creative placemaking projects that involve snow, we get really excited. OK, I get really excited. I suddenly have an urge to throw a snowball, lick an icicle, grease up a metallic disc sled or watch Home Alone. Continue reading
The “upcycled” doors of Cleveland’s St. Clair.
(via cleveland.com)
We keep hearing buzz about places like Cleveland, Omaha and Houston, where cool arts projects are redefining perceptions of what the cities are and can be. Cleveland’s St. Clair Avenue actively engages in neighborhood-wide “upcycling,” creating funky arts and crafts from discarded materials while generating business from the products. Green in the City, an Omaha-based design competition, will create a multipurpose community space and outdoor theater in that city. And Houston’s “rockabilly oasis” of Mid-Main boasts a First Thursday that not only attracts people to the neighborhood for an evening of music, art and libations, but also donates 5% of the evening’s proceeds to local nonprofits.
A Philadelphia mural made possible by the city’s Mural Arts Program.
Public art can appear in so many forms. It can take on serious issues, it can be playful. A food stand in Pittsburgh gives lessons on geopolitical events, a sculpture garden in Minneapolis has an edible installation and a historic market park in Cleveland is complimented by nearby tables and chairs that resemble fruit crates.
More and more cities are supporting public art that fosters community and lets people share experiences. And a lot of these public art projects were recently covered in a great Keystone Edge article, “Public Art Enters a New Era”.
Is your city mentioned? What’s a cool public art project near you?