Some cool public art projects

1.  I wish Banksy's Dismaland, a parody of (Disney) theme parks and commercialization put together in a vacant amusement park in the distressed seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare, UK would be open for more than six weeks--its last day of operation is September 27th--because then maybe I'd manage to figure out how to get there and see it.  There is a nice video ad promotion created for the project that shows off many of the elements.


-- "Welcome to Dismaland: A First Look at Banksy's New Art Exhibition Housed Inside a Dystopian Theme Park," This is Colossal
-- "Dismaland: Banksy's grim new art theme park," CNN
-- "Dismaland: The artists doing cooler things than Banksy at his 'bemusement park'," Independent. This article has images of the various works, listed by artist.
-- "I'm Not Going To Dismaland," New Yorker.  Discusses the decline of seaside resorts in Britain.  (Something those of us who watched the film Quadrophenia back in the late 1970s probably know a bit about.)
-- "Banksy's Dismaland mean - and a little bit green," Telegraph

2.  In Massachusetts, artist Brian Kane bought up advertising slots on billboards along two highways display "Healing Tools," work intended to be seen by commuters with the pop of art as a stress reliever.  See "Artist Buys Billboard Advertising Time to Display Art Instead of Ads on Massachusetts Highways," from This is Colossal.
Photography by Nate Wieselquist and Simone Schiess

In digital billboard and ad systems, such as for bus shelters, I have been tinkering with the idea of ad slots for nonprofits, community events, and other public service messages. Why not display art as well? In Baltimore ("Walters Art Museum goes off the wall: Reproductions of paintings pop up around Baltimore," Baltimore Sun) and some other cities, local art museums have done campaigns where facsimiles of art works are displayed in various public places.

Baltimore already does this with the "Baltimore LED Art Billboard" along the Northeast Corridor railroad tracks across from Penn Station in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.

3. This is Colossal also has an article, "Street Artists Collaborate with Mexican Government to Bring Vibrant Splash of Color to an Entire Neighborhood," about a mural project in Mexico, where the Germen Crew street artists group painted a mural using as a canvas 209 houses on a hillside in the Palmitas neighborhood of Pachuca.