In your face and out of the gallery: The bigger picture of public art

Key learning: The transformative role of public art plays in city design and how it was used in Christchurch’s post-earthquake regeneration.

Public Art flourished in the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes of Ōtautahi Christchurch and helped create a new identity for the city out of the ruins.

City planners, governments, and organisations around the world have long recognised the importance of public art. An expression of creativity in the public realm, public art shapes the identity of our civic places by creating distinctive and iconic visual elements that are intrinsic to the urban realm and how we experience public space.

Deborah will explore the vision setting, strategies, planning and modes of practice formed during her 25-year tenue as Executive Director of SCAPE Public Art, that enabled public art to take on an urgent and necessary role in rehabilitating, defining and elevating spaces to encourage discourse.

Image credit: Judy Millar, Call Me Snake, 2015. Commissioned by SCAPE Public Art. Image courtesy of the artist.