This seminar examines how cities undergoing rapid revitalization are using public art—through creative placemaking, civic art, tactical urbanism—to shape urban life. These approaches are tied to ethical frameworks and notions of value that the seminar explores.
Seminar meetings will discuss the intersections of ethics, public art, and urban design through shared readings, guest speakers, and conversation.
Jason Kelly; History/Arts & Humanities Institute; School of Liberal Arts; IUPUI; jaskelly@iupui.edu
Pamela Napier; Visual Communication Design Department; Herron School of Art; IUPUI; pcnapier@iupiu.edu
Associate Curator for American Art; Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library
543 Indiana Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Morgan will introduce several big ethical questions as a way to think about contemporary public art.
IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute, UL 4115P
Nina Elder will discuss her newest installation, The Score, commissioned as part of the IU Grand Challenges Prepared for Environmental Change project in partnership with City State.
Nina Elder is an artist, adventurer, and arts administrator. Her work focuses on changing cultures and ecologies. Through extensive travel and research, resulting in meticulous drawings and interdisciplinary creative projects, Nina promotes curiosity, exploration, and a collective sense of stewardship. Nina advocates for collaboration, often fostering relationships between institutions, artists, scientists and diverse communities. She is the co-founder of the Wheelhouse Institute, a women's climate leadership initiative. Nina lectures as a visiting artist/scholar at universities, develops publicly engaged programs, and consults with organizations that seek to grow through interdisciplinary programing. Nina's art work is widely exhibited and collected and has been featured in Art in America, VICE Magazine, and on PBS. Her research has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenburg Foundation award for Arts & Activism, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. She is currently an Art + Environment Research Fellow at the Nevada Museum of Art, a Polar Lab Research Fellow at the Anchorage Museum, and a Researcher in Residence in the Art and Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico.
Co-hosted by the Public Art and Ethics seminar, IU Grand Challenges Prepared for Environmental Change project; and City State
IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
Core Readings
Supplementary Readings
IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
Readings
IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
Core Readings
Supplementary Readings
Reading Group
IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
Gates, Theaster. How to Revive a Neighborhood: With Imagination, Beauty and Art, 2015. https://www.ted.com/talks/theaster_gates_how_to_revive_a_neighborhood_with_imagination_beauty_and_art.
Register here.
Reading Group
IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
Register here.
Nina Elder
Artist in residence IUPUI Arts & Humanities Center
IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
Nina Elder is an artist, adventurer, and arts administrator. She grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico where she cultivated love for the land and curiosity about its use. After earning an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, Nina returned to northern New Mexico where she co-founded an off-the-grid artist residency program called PLAND: Practice Liberating Art through Necessary Dislocation followed by several years as the Residency Program Director at the Santa Fe Art Institute. Nina’s work is exhibited and collected nationally, and has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenburg Foundation, and the Pollock Krasner Foundation.
Register here.
Richard McCoy
Director Landmark Columbus
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
There are a limited number of seats; please register for this event here.
Brian Payne
President and CEO Central Indiana Community Foundation
Starla Hart
Program Officer with Local Initiatives Support Corporation Indianapolis
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
Oliver Blank & Natasha Jimenez
Co-founders of Outside, a humanitarian design agency
IUPUI University Library, UL 4115P
755 W. Michigan St.
We invite you to join us for the third meeting of The Ethics, Values, and Practices of Public Art in Urban Contexts Seminar Series. This session's topic will be "Public Art, Representation, and Gentrification" and will feature guest discussants, Oliver Blank and Natasha Jimenez of Outside, a humanitarian design agency.
Assistant Professor of History and Museum Studies; School of Liberal Arts; IUPUI
IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute University Library Room 4115P
We invite you to join us for the second meeting of The Ethics, Values, and Practices of Public Art in Urban Contexts Seminar Series. This session's topic will be "Histories of Public Art and the Common Good" and will feature guest discussant, Dr. Modupe Labode.
Indianapolis Arts Council
DePauw University
Indianapolis Arts & Humanities Institute
IUPUI campus; University Library 4115P
Cities across the US are grappling with major transformations that expose the many tensions inherent to historical disparities in economics, education, safety, and political access brought on by inequalities based in race and class. Midwest cities have responded to these challenges with a variety of approaches. This seminar series is concerned with addressing one of them: the role of culture in reshaping cities – specifically through public art.
In the discourse and practice of urban design, public art has increasingly been seen as a key tool in redeveloping our cities – from making cities more livable and safe to encouraging economic development and educational achievement. Using art as a tool to address urban design challenges goes by a variety of different names: creative placemaking, civic art, and tactical urbanism, to name a few. These approaches are fundamentally tied to ethical frameworks and notions of value.
