Thanks for watching!

Public art is an issue that artists in Columbus are concerned with right now.

Making public art anywhere in this country has been an uphill endeavor, particularly in Columbus, where we have to begin by educating not only the public, but the private and corporate sector.

Public art, essentially art that is in places that the public will encounter it on a regular basis where there's not an option.

It's not a case of having to go in a building or going to some hidden place.

It's something the public's going to literally trip over.

It will be in the streets, it will be on the parks, on the sides of buildings, in very highly visible places where the public encounters it.

Public art is a very, very interesting territory because we have come to understand public art from its history as monuments and as references to closely held community activities.

Artists have continued to break down the old rules.

And as public art has emerged since the middle of this 20th century.

We now see very often the extension of what might be really private studio ideas, the ideas that artists explore in their own private studio, out into the public life.

And very often this creates some serious problems in understanding and in comprehension of what on earth is this about?

Why is this public?

Tricia Fuller's answer to that question when asked, what is art, was, art is anything made by an artist.

I won't go quite that far.

But it is one way of defining the willingness of a community to find new forms of art, not to close yourself off.

And I think that's important.

We don't say that bronze statues over 10 feet tall are public art, period.

We don' want to be that restrictive.

It is available to the general public in a sort of day in, day out way and it can take many forms.

A lot of people think of public art as being primarily sculpture but it exists in many other forms as well.

I think public art can solve a lot of urban ills and without something exciting for our pedestrians to see while they're around, where's the inspiration?

We need inspiration in our everyday life.

We need excitement.

We need color.

We need variety.

A lot can be done with murals and we've just started and we'd like to show all of Columbus what can be.

We'd like to be one of the nicer mural cities around the United States.

Every single thing that is ever put up cannot appeal to every single person.

Otherwise you do have mediocrity.

You have to challenge the people.

In terms of public art, there is a real collaboration between the artist and the public, also between the commissioning agencies and the architects.

I think ownership of public arts comes through the collaborative process, wherein the neighbors, the people who are going to be experiencing this work, have a feeling of participation in the process.

Through meeting the artist, through understanding where the ideas that the artist is presenting have come from, through help in selection, not of the art necessarily, but of sighting.

Sighting is vitally important for not only the art, but the way people relate to it.

And I think these factors are crucial.

They are works that have been actually created through efforts of the public.

You know, it's funny how people treat public art, even so-called controversial contemporary pieces.

Across the country, we've seen tremendous vandalism of public property, rarely of public art.

And that's a real fact.

The public respects it.

It's just as vandalizable as a subway car or a wall or a bridge.

And they tend not to do it, not So there haven't been examples where it has happened.

But they tend not to.

They tend to respect the work.

The arts are clearly becoming the centerpiece of Columbus.

We're not going to be known for our mountains.

The skiing is not good.

The beaches are not good, sports teams, come on.

So who are we?

We're a healthy economic climate with a brilliant educational structure and a very lively cultural community that is proving it can produce work.

That stands up nationally and internationally.

Roy Lichtenstein, whose piece we own at the airport that was valued at $750,000 is one of the hottest international artists in the world, credits his inspiration and his training to his years at Ohio State University.

He's our artist.

The question of community involvement, community dialog in works of art is the only way to make them public.

Otherwise, it's private art in public places.

And I think that that is something that, while it is possibly interesting and possibly serves to bring an awareness of ideas unknown previously to a community, I think there are many, many other angles that have to be explored.

Really coming to an understanding of public.

No.