Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

A statue in the city park, a water fountain on the market square or a mural on a train station. All of these are examples of art in public space, a space considered much more accessible for viewing art than a museum. Unfortunately, museums do not seem to be equally accessible to everyone. This is shown by statistics and several barriers that hinder the museum visit. Art in public space are permanent or temporary works of art or practices located in a freely accessible space, making it possible to reach a broad public. This leads to the research question of how the public relates to art in public space. In particular, the public's experience of art in public space, the perceived accessibility and the deemed suitability of the public space to place art in are studied. Data is collected through interviews with people considered to be the public of art in the public space, meaning everyone who ever uses the public space. The respondents all have different ages, professions and levels of interest in art. In exploring the public's relationship to art in public space, various themes related to this subject are discussed. The respondents appreciate art in the public space because of its ability to bring everyone into contact with art. In contrast to art in museums, works of art are not shielded in the public space. One can get very close and even touch the artwork. Art in public space is experienced as accessible, because one can be confronted with art in a spontaneous and approachable way. However, it turns out that even in the public space the knowledge that the public possesses is important for the art experience. Respondents who regularly visit museums and have a high interest in art prefer museums to view art, because of the numerous distractions, people and noise present in the public space. Moreover, the respondents have different expectations of the relation between artwork and environment. Varying between completely fitting in and standing out of the artwork in its surroundings. It is remarkable that regular museum visitors want to see features surrounding a work of art in public space similar to those in a museum, such as space and silence. Yet, these characteristics would threaten the accessibility of the public space. Lastly, a strong substantive link between the artwork and its surroundings makes the work of art, according to the respondents, only suitable for that location.