From our Executive Director and Board Chair

It is our honor to share with you the 2022 Forecast Public Art Annual Report to the community. These stories and images celebrate everyone who helped create the conditions for Forecast to serve and thrive in the past year as we expanded our work nationally, deepened our impact in communities and continued to address some of the most challenging issues our nation has faced.

Last year, we worked with over 40 partners in cities nationwide from Red Wing to Washington DC, Alameda to Massachusetts—from affordable housing developers to council members, community groups to park systems—providing them with tools, planning, and processes to support skilled public artists in their own communities and prioritizing the work of BIPOC artists. We published two issues of our respected digital publication, FORWARD, focusing on the critical issues of sustainable design in Indian Country, and housing, highlighting work led by BIPOC artists and culture bearers. We expanded our Making It Public training to communities from Saint Paul to Baton Rouge, ensuring more artists have access to public art-making skills.

We are incredibly proud of our team around the country who made this tremendous impact for artists and communities. This report is also an act of gratitude from our team to our partners in the community, the artists we work and collaborate with and the funders and donors who believe in our work. It is a thank you to those who have trusted us to continue to take risks advancing more equitable places, disrupting unfair practices and imagining new policies that shape a more just world.

As Forecast looks ahead at this new year, we are committed to being a part of adaptive change to advance justice, health and human dignity in public art across the country. We invite you to join us by supporting this continued work to:

• Expand access to tools, resources, opportunities, and funding for artists to work in public, create partnerships and advance their public art careers nationally, emphasizing access for BIPOC and Native artists, LGBTQIA+ artists, women and non-binary artists, immigrant artists, artists from rural communities, and artists with disabilities.
• Lead creative community engagement with trauma-informed facilitation, local capacity building and by hiring BIPOC artists and facilitators from the local community on every team.
• Host a national Intro to Public Art Consulting training to prepare BIPOC artists/individuals to become public art consultants, facilitators and curators.
• Address the climate crisis and the role that artists can play in a new issue and series of public programs through our free, digital FORWARD publication. This 6th FORWARD installment highlights how art and creativity are raising awareness, engaging vulnerable communities, and spurring action worldwide—with artists as valuable partners. Including inspiring case studies spanning the globe, the issue explores strong creative projects and cross-sector partnerships focused on public health, heat extremes, floods & drought, population displacement, and more.

With our team, our supporters, and the creativity of artists, we are energized by the power of creative imagination and the possibilities in front of us.

With Thanks,

Theresa Sweetland, Executive Director

and Dudley Voigt, Board Chair