But while I have written a bunch about parks and transportational access, I didn't think to include that as another topic in the series. The challenge is to ensure that as many parks as possible are accessible by transit. This, and other forms of accessibility, should be covered in a parks master plan.
a number of works of Central Park. This dates to 1892.
But rather than the "high art" paintings of yesterday, the range of arts programming in parks is much wider than it was then.
Gene Harris Bandshell (amphitheater), Julia Davis Park, Boise, Idaho.
Some parks might have an amphitheater for music and theater presentations. Lunch time concerts are typical at Downtown parks and squares. Some parks or recreation centers might have arts production facilities like a kiln for ceramics and arts education programs.
Many parks have museums or other cultural facilities within their parks. The Chicago lakefront is renowned for its lakeshore being a continuous park, with
10 museums and cultural facilities including the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Science and Industry and the Shedd Aquarium. In Salt Lake's Liberty Park, the mansion of the park's donor remains, and is used to display regionally-relevant cultural artifacts and presents temporary exhibits.
Programming offered is a wide range, can be music, theater, dance, children's activities, etc. Mostly, parks might do one or two art related initiatives.
Silverwood Park, north of Minneapolis, displays the work of regional artists and poets on trails and in the park's gallery. The
Arts in California Parks program has Native American recognition, health and diversity objectives as part of their program.
Art in the Park in Northeast Los Angeles offers a wide range, including sponsoring a community band. The
Multnomah Arts Center is an initiative of the Portland Parks Department and offers programs for youth and adults.
Most typical is a focus on public art. That's the case with NYC's "
Art in the Parks" program. Its webpage focuses on public art, even though there are many other arts-related programs in the city's parks, they have the
Arsenal Gallery in Central Park, etc.
Arsenal Gallery, Central Park, New York City
Lack of budget. A big problem is that park departments have budgets that are inadequate to meet the demand for services, so programming tends to be an after thought, maybe funded by special grants, or offered in association with other agencies to share the cost, but mostly doesn't exist.
Programming tends to be provided in parks and public spaces that are managed by conservancies or business improvements districts--organizations that have separate funding sources, and with the luxury of only managing a few spaces, not many dozens.
Types of programs. Music and cinema are probably the most common. So arts as consumption or presentation. But there are myriad opportunities.
Members of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks perform 12th Night Wednesday evening at the Libby Elementary School Amphitheater. Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, is an outreach program of Montana State University serving 61 rural communities in over 10 weeks across five states. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
Theater.
Montana Shakespeare in the Parks travels around that state and pops into abutting states too (we saw a play they put on in Pocatello, Iowa).
The Southern Utah National Parks also have a "
Community Artist in the Parks" program where an area artist is selected to make and present art within the parks.
Music.
Celebrate Brooklyn is an annual free concert series at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park.
Many downtown promotion organizations sponsor daytime music. (Parks will also do ticketed events or rent out their space to big music festivals like Lollapalooza in Grant Park in Chicago.)
A number of symphony orchestras do summer residencies in parks. The Los Angeles Symphony plays in the Hollywood Bowl. These too tend to be destination events.
Music in the American Wild (
webpage, Eastman School of Music) was a program where new music compositions were commissioned to play in 12 National Parks, in honor of the park system's 100th anniversary.
And there are plenty of examples of permanent public art, from statues to murals.
Felipe Baeza, "Unruly Forms," bus shelter art in the US and Mexico
Traditional paintings presented in parks. This has been done in many places. In Maine, Maryland and others.
A reproduction of "Dark Harbor Fishermen" by N.C. Wyeth is posted along a trail in Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park in Freeport. The Portland Museum of Art has partnered with L.L. Bean and the state parks bureau to install reproductions of works of art from at five outdoor sites this summer. (Staff photo by Ben McCanna, "See Famous Paintings," Portland Press-Herald.)
Artist Kathy Wipfler gives a demonstration in Grand Teton National Park.
There are plenty of local plein air events in parks There is even a magazine,
Plein Air, devoted to the subject and it lists events.
Galleries. As mentioned. There is one at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, the
Dyer Building.
Movies in the park. Happens all over.
Special lighting events. Exhibits. Site installations. Educational programs.
Arts and crafts fairs/Festivals. The one sponsored by the Boise Museum of Art,
Art in the Park, held in the adjacent Julia Dawson Park, is pretty cool (
artist guidelines). They are all over And some can be pretty bad.
For artists, the best ones are where people actually buy, so they attract better quality artists ("
Guide to the Top Art Fairs Across the U.S.," Artwork Archive). After the last one I went to, I joked "we don't need to do one in Sugar House Park.
The event features more than 250 artists offering varied fare, from glass and metalwork, to pottery and textiles, jewelry and toys! Shoppers will find a wide selection of arts and crafts for all tastes. Enjoy a variety of food and beverages from more than 30 food vendors, relax while listening to local musicians at the Gene Harris Bandshell and grab a drink in the Sculpture Garden Pub. Children are encouraged to get creative with an arts and crafts project in the Children’s Art Tent.
Artscape in Baltimore is one of my favorite festivals, not just with arts and crafts vendors, but the participation of programs at the Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art, students presenting their work and projects, nonprofits, and arts organizations, along with music stages.
Book festivals are another variant.
Etc.
Destination events and problems.
Photo of Lollapalooza 2022. Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune.
There are two types of cultural destination events that are parks related. The first is spaces organized around the discipline such as park like spaces for theater or music, but the facility isn't open as a park otherwise.
The other is having ticketed or private events in regular public parks like Grant Park in Chicago, home to the Lollapalooza music festival.
Art and controversy in public spaces. Note that given that it's a public facility, a park setting isn't likely to always support the presentation of "cutting edge" works, e.g., challenging political works may be controversial ("
A Story of Arab Loss Comes to Life at a Kibbutz in Israel,"
New York Times), or fire as part of performance art. Those would be hard for an average administrator to approve.
That being said, there are some public art programs, like Portland's Tri-Met transit agency, that have presented on a permanent basis some incredibly challenging works, such as a nearby site of a Japanese-American internment camp and the anti-Asian racism of local newspapers at the time.
There is the related issue of presenting art in spaces of controversy ("
Harsh is truth,"
National Parks Magazine). Tri-Met did that, acknowledging two stations Exposition (Japanese internment) and Vanport (where the Kaiser flood killed dozens of people) serve areas where controversy occurred.
Nina Berman, Homeland Security Advisory Billboard, Country Club Hills, IL, 2008, from the Homeland series. “Home Land Security” opened a few months after the Brexit vote and ran through the U.S. presidential election. In the chilling installation, “2487,” the artist, Luz Maria Sanchez, reads the names of the 2,487 people known to have lost their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between 1993 and 2006. Other works included “Some/One,” a larger-than-life suit of armor that Do Ho Suh crafted out of thousands of military identification tags representing individual soldiers; “Encirclement,” Michele Pred’s sculpture made of objects confiscated by the Transportation Security Administration such as scissors, pocket knives and lighters; and “34,000 Pillows,” which two artists collectively known as Diaz Lewis created in response to the congressional mandate that every day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement fill 34,000 beds in their facilities with immigrant detainees. More than 200 visitors participated in pillow-making.
Antediluvian, an abandoned gas station, sculpture, by Canadian artist Mia Feuer, a resident of DC.
This work proposed for the Anacostia River in Washington, DC didn't get installed, because people said it implied the residents mistreated the river.
Anti-Semitic vandalism on Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner, Versailles, France, 2015.
But most complaints are about content ("
Inside NYC’s most explosive public-art controversies,"
New York Post, "
Invitation to a Dialogue: A Debate Over Public Art," and "
Art in Public Spaces,"
New York Times. "
Controversial Public Art. Debate, Fury, Vandalism and Loss," Artland, "
Amid Crisis, a Renaissance for Street Art,"
Bloomberg, "
University of Houston cancels opening ceremony, increases security around “satanic” art installation," Houston NPR). People may react by defacing or stealing the work(s).
The Black Lives Matter mural on 16th Street NW in DC was partly an "in your face" act vis a vis President Trump during the George Floyd demonstrations.
Developing policies for response in advance of such controversies is advised.
Parks have been caught in the middle between interests that want to keep the monuments up and those that don't. This is less of an issue as parks are removing statues, military bases, and university buildings, schools, streets, etc. are being renamed, although there is still opposition to the change.
And there were alternatives. E.g., I thought it would be cool to reinterpret the Robert E. Lee statue with a revisionist exhibit placed around it ("
Monuments, historiography, and change," 2020).
Robert E. Lee statue, covered in graffiti, on Monument Avenue, Richmond, before removal.
Security and public art. There is also the issue of security and art works placed in parks. As mentioned above, this is an issue at times with controversial public art. But it's also an issue with vandalism in general. Plus, metal works may get stolen for the value of the metal ("
Art removed from International Peace Gardens after attempted theft," Fox 13 Salt Lake). Advance security planning is advised.
Creating a typology. Like the "
wheel" of event types created for the Salt Lake City
Reimagine Nature plan, or the
planning for seasonality approach created by Balmori and Associates, there needs to be a typology for arts in the parks programming.
While researching for this article, I did come across one that could function that way, in "
Why is landscape design the greatest art form" by the firm LandARCH Concepts. While below I offer a more comprehensive listing of the artistic disciplines, the format of this chart, which doesn't just list the disciplines, but also the senses that are engaged by each, is quite interesting.
Outlining the potential for a comprehensive approach. The point of outlining a more complete framework of the disciplines and ways of presenting is to set the stage for a more comprehensive approach to arts in the parks program.
Doing all of it is beyond the capacity of the average park or park system. But it's helpful to have a such a framework to be able to make structured decisions and choices for what to do, how to do it, how to position it, etc.
Note also that not every potential discipline is likely to apply/work in park settings.
Organizing Principles
Comprehensive approach: This framework outlines a comprehensive approach to arts in the park programs and programming.
Equity: access and participation shouldn't be limited by income. Parks should develop programs to assist people of lesser means in enabling their participation.
Montgomery County Maryland Recreation has a program that does this. The national Museums for All program provides free access to more than 1,200 museums, for people on food assistance.
Support Producing Artists: in arts programming much of the focus ends up being on the consumer, what I call the difference between arts as production and arts presentation. Support of artists should be a forefront of planning for arts programs in parks ("
Seattle launches New Deal-inspired income program for artists,"
Crosscut).
Disciplines
Note that this "complete" list doesn't mean that parks should do all of these. Just that this is a good list of the possibilities.
Visual Arts: including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, architecture, multimedia, installation, video art and projection, lighting, new genres, craft (ceramics, metalwork, glass, textiles, woodworking, etc.), and socially engaged, and/or sustainable visual art-based practices, and in a park setting, manipulation of park equipment and facilities
Performing Arts: including dance, theater (new theatrical work, playwriting), music (popular, jazz, opera, classical, etc.) performance and composition, performance art, puppetry, acrobatics and circus arts, and socially engaged and/or sustainable performing arts-based practices
The artist JR's "Giant Picnic" across the US-Mexican border.
Film/Moving Image: including experimental film, short film, animation, documentary film, narrative film, and socially engaged and/or sustainable film/moving image-based practices, and presentation.
Movie night in Laird Park, a neighborhood park in Salt Lake City.
Technology: including augmented reality/virtual reality, bio art, data visualization, hardware, software, digital media, internet art, and socially engaged and/or sustainable technology-based practices
Literature/Words/Language: including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, spoken word, translation, book arts, and socially engaged and/or sustainable literature-based practices.
StoryWalk isn't high art, but does present opportunities to promote reading within parks
Design: graphic design, illustration, murals/street art, and socially engaged and/or sustainable design-based practices
Landscape Architecture and Horticulture: manipulation of the landscape,
environmental art, creative display and manipulation of plants and plantings, programs, and socially engaged based practices. ("
A word for landscape architecture,"
Harvard Design Magazine, "
Why is landscape design the greatest art form" LandARCH Concepts, "
Environmental Art: Changing Our Habits Or Just Illustrating What We Already Know?," Artland, "
Michael Singer, Sculptor Who Used Nature as His Medium, Dies at 78,"
New York Times).
Agnes Denes, Wheatfield – A Confrontation, 1982, Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan,
photo: John McGrall
From the FT:
“New gardening” has leapt over the garden fence to beautify streets, parks and roundabouts of towns and cities worldwide. There is a generation of gardeners out there who do not look upon horticulture solely as a “back-garden” activity. They achieve beautification in various ways: by creating a community garden; planting flowers in the “tree pits” that surround street trees; or even engaging in “guerrilla gardening”, the practice whereby squads of horticulturists take to the streets at night to plant shrubs and flowers in places that may have been neglected by the local authorities.
In this vision, gardening becomes a benign form of environmental activism and a way of creating “social cohesion” — which in practice means making friends through gardening; it is certainly true that the activity recognises no social boundaries.
The Bilbao Garden, Balmori & Associates, 2011, International Garden Competition (article).
International Garden Show, Hamburg, 2013
Wasatch Community Gardens sponsors "
Sabores de me Patria" which has arts elements in the way it presents Latin American foodways.
Organized community meals with specific objectives for outcomes can be a form of performance art (or community building).
This installation in Tel Aviv is not set up as a meal, but could easily do so.
Programs
Art centers: Typically multidisciplinary arts centers are not part of park systems. But there may be art-related centers/buildings located within parks.
Arts as part of other events: e.g. art cars at a festival, music in a parade
Artist in residence: The intent is that artists create site-specific artwork on the property based generally on the artist proposal and the artist’s previous works. Artists then deliver an experience at the property through which the local community can engage with the artist and the residency such as a workshop, talk, open studio, exhibition or tour.
Arts production: having equipment for the production of art and craft such as ceramics kilns, furnaces for glass, etc.
Children's experiences: Often as part of events, there will be art participation tables set up for children as a way for them to participate in the event. A lot of face painting and balloon animal making. The events might set up children's areas with bounce castles, etc.
Destination events: This article focuses on arts programs in city, county, state, and theoretically federal parks. It doesn't focus on destination events like theater festivals in park like spaces, ticketed music festivals in parks, and Fashion Week at Lincoln Center, etc.
Exhibits, Curation and Presentation
Exhibit: Forest of Dreams: Contemporary Tree Sculpture (Autumn, 2023 Seasons).
Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids Michigan
Festivals: arts and craft fairs, community festivals, etc. Note that arts walks tend to be productions of business districts, not involving parks much unless public spaces are used for music presentation.
Galleries: Presentation of art in park buildings.
Museums and cultural facilities in parks.
Studios and rehearsal spaces: spaces for visual and performing artists to work, allocated on a short or long term basis, or as part of artist in residence programs.
Studio tour programs. Not usually park specific. But areas, such as neighborhoods, will organize tour events, like an art walk, featuring access to studios by working artists in the community.
New England Conservancy Open Studios.
Conclusion. I offer this entry as an introductory attempt to provide a comprehensive programming framework for presenting arts in the parks programs in park systems and individual parks, squares, plazas, etc.
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