Overview

Over the course of the past two decades there has been significant interest and investment in public art projects, both temporary and permanent. Whether commissioned in connection with cultural regeneration strategies, exhibitions, institutional programming, or as stand-alone projects, public art is assumed to carry a particular set of responsibilities that have implications both for artists and commissioners. This panel will answer questions, such as: what are those responsibilities? More essentially, to whom is public art responsible? How do those assumptions and expectations constrain artists working in the public space and also free them? How do such notions of responsibility differ in the West and the Middle East?