From our Executive Director and Board Chair

It is our honor to share with you the 2023 Forecast Public Art Report to the Community. These stories and images celebrate everyone who helped create the conditions for Forecast to serve and thrive in our 45th year as we celebrated the history of the organization, the expansion of our work nationally, and the deepening of our impact in communities. We are proud to reach a major milestone, nearly a half-century of transforming communities through the power of art!

Another thanks to everyone who helped make our anniversary party a success. We celebrated how Forecast has deepened our commitment and support to BIPOC artists, invested in BIPOC leadership and amplified BIPOC voices in our storytelling nationally.

• 20 artists participated as performers, poets, designers, and more creative roles.
• 85% of event costs supported BIPOC artists, small businesses and vendors.
• And, 50+ artists attended for free, thanks to the sponsorship of Otogawa-Anschel Design-Build.

In 2023, we worked with over 30 partners in cities nationwide, from Somerville to San Francisco, Tuba City to Saint Paul. From housing developers to council members, and community groups to park systems. We provided tools, planning, and processes to support skilled public artists in their communities and prioritize the work of BIPOC artists.

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, 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 our commitment to a more inclusive public art and memorial landscape in our country with the release of our next free digital FORWARD publication and public programming series. Focused on Monuments and Memorials, this seventh FORWARD installment is made in partnership with the New Monuments Task Force.
• Expand our award-winning artist-led engagement practice. This practice builds on local creative capacity by hiring BIPOC artists and community liaisons to more deeply engage residents in important projects, from road redesign to city planning.
• Fill gaps in workforce development by leading national training. These trainings prepare BIPOC artists/individuals to become public art consultants, facilitators, and curators.
• Address the climate crisis, and the role that artists can play. Our new climate-resilient consulting service and our next Change Lab Research Fellow, focused on Climate Resilience and Environmental Justice in Public Art, accompany our recent FORWARD issue about how artists are tackling the climate crisis worldwide.

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