UNDERGRADUATE SECTION

Public art has never simply been decoration. At its best, it
brings us up short and makes us reconsider the built environment as
a space of democratic  potential. This course asks how through a
survey of the history and theory of public art in America. In the
nineteenth century, public art helped Americans understand their
place in the modern world.
	Monuments did not simply commemorate events but determined
how Americans remembered them. Throughout the twentieth century,
artists reconsidered the role of art in public places, often
attempting to reverse industrialization’s dehumanizing effects.
Since the 1960s, installation art and site-specific art have become
the predominant modes for a “critical” art practice.

	How can the installation of an artwork determine its
meaning? Today, artists make work for the most unexpected places,
from manhole covers to cell phones. What new  roles can we imagine
for public art?