An Indiana group is expanding the definition, and maybe the placement, of 'public art'

EVANSVILLE — Walking down the streets of Haynie's Corner, you can find a colorful mural on display across a building or fence, a painted mini-public-library or a sculpture emerging amid the hodgepodge of homes, businesses and art installations.

When you visit the Evansville Public Art Commission's page of approved public artworks, the dominant record of public artworks in Evansville, seven projects spanning two decades appear. But the murals and installations that dot the city's arts district are absent. 

A group based in Marion County, Indiana, is taking a different approach.

Marion County public art census, named Public Art for All, cast a wider net in defining and cataloging public artworks. Spearheaded by author and lead researcher Danicia Monét Malone, the team completed a street-by-street inventory of the county, which includes Indianapolis, and identified 3,090 artworks that fit their broad definition of public art.

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Unlike most public art counts in cities and counties, Malone incorporated roadside memorials, graffiti and even manholes in her collection of artworks. She defined artworks as “public” if they were viewable from a public space, such as a road. 

“That was key for us, expanding that very linear definition (on what art is), and what can be a linear conversation into something much more robust,” she said. “So that we could be inclusive, and really start to push what it means to have public art for all.”

In contrast, Evansville Public Arts Commission only considers artwork on public land as public art. When looking at the art projects approved by the commission, the collection is narrow, with only seven projects dating back to 2005, per their website. You see a very different public art scene when walking the streets of Evansville. 

Walking through Haynie's Corner, for example, there are numerous murals and sculptural works that are not listed on the commission's website. The "Neon Lights" mural in Self.e Alley, for example, has become a staple of the Evansville art landscape but is not recognized as public artworks by the commission. Since PAC primarily serves to evaluate safety and maintenance concerns of installations on public land, projects initiated on private land are not reviewed or documented by the commission.

This expansion in publicly viewable art is in large part due to the efforts within the private sector to incorporate works on their properties, PAC chairperson Sarah Schuler said.

'Spatial justice' and funding issues

Public Art for All also studies what they call "spatial justice." They define it as “equitable spaces for all," where adornments such as public art stretch into spaces to people belonging to different ethnicities and lifestyles.

“When we're thinking about who has access, who has ownership, and who has the ability, or rights, to manipulate space (we’re also thinking about who) has the right to be in space,” Malone said. These questions of access and representation served as a framework for the study. One of many goals of the study was to observe how thoughtful urban developments (such as public art) can counteract the marginalization and devaluation some communities experience.

Simply existing in a public space as a BIPOC person can be a deviant act, especially when that space was neither built for you nor with you in mind, she said. It is for this reason among others that Malone sees public art as such a key tool to identifying who is seen, valued, devalued and dismissed in communities. She said it is important to evaluate the distribution of public art in order to examine where we are making community/neighborhood investments.

The Marion County study identified various art deserts, or areas with minimal to no accessible public artworks, across the county. However, Evansville’s public art collection is not comparable to Marion County's, mainly due to the population difference, said Anne McKim, executive director of the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana. But when looking at public artworks in Evansville, there are areas that are less developed than others.

This, McKim said, is different than equity and art deserts. However, she said ARTSWIN and at the Indianapolis Arts Council takes outreach to diverse communities seriously, and she said the council still has work to do to bridge gaps.

Although PAC can recommend locations to place art, including ones that have less or no public art, when artists come to them with proposals, most of them already have an idea where they'd like their work to go, Schuler said.

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When evaluating proposed locations for artworks, PAC is primarily concerned with safety and whether or not the work fits with any future development plans. She suspects that during the four years she has served as chairperson of the commission, between 5-10 projects have crossed her desk, not all of which have been initiated.

The smaller footprint of public art in Evansville can also be partly attributed to funding issues.

“Some communities have infrastructure to where they can add a new public art piece every year,” McKim said. “That doesn’t really exist here.” 

In previous years, there was an annual arts festival in Evansville. The festival, Sculpt EVV, was held in Haynie’s Corner Art District and lasted for four years before it was disbanded because of funding issues, Schuler said. Previously, two art installations would be chosen and constructed for each iteration of the festival. 

Public art can be a wonderful indicator of a city's creativity, Malone said, and an indicator of how and where to prioritize investment in a neighborhood.

McKim thinks it is “fabulous” what the census did and hopes to see expansion in public artworks community-wide.