PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS
Our 2023 programming continued to thrive with the energy of our new mission + vision. Racial justice work and Indigenous visibility was front and center in our work. We sought out a full spectrum of partners who make more equitable public art happen; Forecast’s team found creative ways to engage with every collaborator in this vital work to activate public art that advances justice, health, and human dignity.
ARTIST GRANT PROGRAM
2023 Forecast Grant Recipients
Public artists help us connect with each other and understand our shared world. Our grant program gives public artists time and space to develop research and locally connected projects. Each year we seek to fund a diverse group of artists working in all career stages and in a range of public art practices and media. We emphasize supporting and amplifying the artistic work of BIPOC and Native artists, LGBTQIA+ artists, artists from rural communities, artists with disabilities, and other groups that are traditionally excluded. These have long been the only public art grants in the country that fund self-initiated artist projects rather than asking artists to answer a call. This year’s grant recipients are planning projects to uplift their communities through representational storytelling, celebrating creativity, promoting health, researching relationships, developing skills, and more
Artist Grantees
- Mid-Career Project Grantees ($10,000 each): Christopheraaron Deanes; Andy Frye; Annie Hough; Summer Cypher (Teddy Grimes & Kimani Beard); Pramila Vasudevan.
- Early-Career Project Grantees ($8,000 each): Alexandra Beaumont; Lea Friesen.
- Mid-Career Professional Development Grantees ($5,000 each): Dani Bianchini; Sharon Mansur, with Meryl Zaytoun Murman (team).
- Early-Career Research + Development Grantees ($2,500 each): Talon Cavender-Wilson; Jgo; Soph Munic; Juliette Perine-Myers.
Image: (Row 1, from left) Christopheraaron Deanes; Andy Frye; Annie Hough; Summer Cypher; Pramila Vasudevan. (Row 2) Alexandra Beaumont; Lea Friesen; Dani Bianchini; Sharon Mansur, with Meryl Zaytoun Murman (team). (Row 3) Talon Cavender-Wilson; Jgo; Soph Munic; Juliette Perine-Myers.
This activity is made possible thanks to generous funding from Jerome Foundation (early-career grants) and the McKnight Foundation (mid-career grants).
FEATURED 2023 GRANT PROJECT
PRAIRIE/CONCRETE
2023 Mid-Career Project grantee Pramila Vasudevan brings visibility to plant cycles and growing processes through an embodied movement project led by Aniccha Arts, commissioned by Public Art Saint Paul. PRAIRIE/CONCRETE explores relationships between movement-making and plant-growing processes, seeking connections in a time of disconnection via embodied listening and movement sessions with audiences in Imnizaska, (where the white rock bluffs form what we now call Saint Paul, Minnesota). The project unfolded in public workshops and performance gatherings held throughout the summer at Frogtown Farm, Hidden Falls Regional Park, Western Sculpture Park, and as part of the first Wakpa Triennial Arts Festival this fall.
CHANGE LAB
NATIONAL LISTENING SESSIONS
resulted in our Reimagining Public Art in America focus group analysis and peer exchange.
We have long recognized the need to collectively develop a national public art policy platform that is rooted in justice, health and human dignity and pushes for long-term change. Now it is happening:
With support from funders and donors, our team facilitated creative listening sessions in 5 regions across the country in 2023. In collaboration with leaders and artists in each region, through engaging, artful, and culturally-relevant listening sessions, we explored and documented critical contemporary issues that BIPOC artists and arts admins are facing in the field. This new initiative will mean change for the whole industry.
Future work in the Change Lab will be informed by the public art policy platform, turning concept into concrete action.
We heard from session attendees:
“What is the role of white allyship in this work so that we don't put all the work of unpacking the injustices that shape our public spaces on BIPOC creators?"
“Suddenly during the pandemic it was possible to give funds directly to artists. Let’s keep doing this.”
“We open doors, but where’s the follow-up? Where’s the storytelling and celebration so that these emerging artists are well known for the next round?”
At our report presentation and peer exchange, participants learned about our listening effort and the recommendations we heard from BIPOC artists and leaders nationwide, and we discussed next steps. We were thrilled to be joined by sixty-six peers from over a dozen locations around North America.
Through our Taking Action poll during the peer exchange, 70% of participants responded that they could take immediate action for more equitable public art in their community by Government agencies and funders reforming their applications, metrics and budgets. 48% through Field building in culturally resonant ways, and 41% by Supporting artist collectives and communal cultural practices:
FORWARD
FORWARD Issue 6: Climate
Focused on the fate of our climate, the 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 air pollution, heat extremes, floods, population displacement, and more. In each of this issue’s case studies we highlight the specific roles artists are playing in the effort to tackle climate change. These include: Amplifying Urgency, Mitigating a Climate Threat, Facilitating Community-Led Solutions, Communicating Complex Data, and Innovating Preparedness.
The issue also includes our fifth installment of Public Art Now, a recurring collection of selected works featuring leading voices sharing public art of the moment. Amal Khalaf, Director of Programmes at Cubitt and Civic Curator at the Serpentine Galleries, is the issue’s Public Art Now guest curator. Among other questions, for her collection, Khalaf asks, How do artists respond to the urgencies related to social, climate, and spatial injustice, both in our cities and in rural contexts?
Additionally, readers will find a Toolkit made in partnership with the US Water Alliance (USWA), filled with resources for working creatively in climate-related fields, along with our popular Dream Job description. Benny Starr, the inaugural One Water Artist-in-Residence at the USWA, is the creative mind behind the issue’s Dream Job. A hip-hop artist and creator focusing on the artistic process, collaboration, and social practice, his Dream Job makes the case for guaranteed income for artists at a time when artists, leaders, and communities across the US are seeing a growing appeal for programs where artists are paid regularly.
FORWARD #6 TEAM
Theresa Sweetland (Publisher, Editorial Team); Jen Dolen (Project Manager, Editorial Team); Mallory Rukhsana Nezam (Curator of Partnerships + Programming, Editorial Team); Jon Spayde (Contributing Editor); Karen Olson (Advisor); Amal Khalaf (Guest Curator); Camille LeFevre (Contributing Writer); Benny Starr (Contributor); Loma Huh (Copy Editor); Jen Krava (Forecast Consulting Advisor); Shauna Dee (Accounting); Fred Pirlot (Layout).
FORWARD PROGRAMMING
Public Art Now: Indigenous Public Art with Jessica Mehta and Gregg Deal
A FORWARD series discussion of contemporary public art by Native artists, featuring curator Jessica Mehta and artist Gregg Deal
In her introduction to the Public Art Now collection in FORWARD Issue #5, guest curator Jessica (Tyner) Mehta writes: “I believe the works of these artists and their recent contributions will spark necessary discourse, provide a framework for information exchange and culture bearing that breeds real change, and, overall, make big strides toward re-Indigenizing Turtle Island.” Join Forecast Public Art‘s FORWARD series for a conversation between Public Art Now guest curator Jessica (Tyner) Mehta and artist Gregg Deal (featured in the publication) about how Native artists are critically engaging the public realm.
Artists + Climate Change Solutions
With Emma Robbins, Travis Sheridan, and Dr. Galen Treuer. A FORWARD series panel conversation about how artists are helping to address the housing crisis.
In this cross-sector discussion, learn how public artists are collaborating to help address climate change and work toward climate justice.
This panel discussion, hosted by Forecast Public Art, features the following speakers:
- Emma Robbins (Diné), an artist, activist, and community organizer, managing director of Planet Women, and the founder of The Chapter House.
- Travis Sheridan, chief community officer at Wexford Science + Technology, where he forges strong ties with university partners, civic leaders, and community groups.
- Dr. Galen Treuer, head of Climate Tech and Economic Innovation for Miami-Dade County.
WORKSHOPS & TRAININGS
MAKING IT PUBLIC
Piloted in 2014, the Making It Public workshop was originally designed with the intention of equipping Minnesota artists with essential place-making tools for utilization in their own communities. Over the years the workshop curriculum has developed nationally to serve artists who are interested in exploring or expanding a public art-making practice as well as arts administrators who are interested in strengthening local practices to support, create, and promote public art opportunities.
The two individual workshops have been attended by hundreds of artists and arts administrators across the U.S. at the request of municipalities, state arts agencies, non-profit organizations, and private developers. The 5-week Zoom educational experience consists of 90-minute presentations covering practical and tactical subject matter including local and national arts industry guest panelists.
2023 Making It Public sessions
Massachusetts Artist workshop
provided for Massachusetts-based artists; in partnership with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Bloomington Artist workshop
provided for Minnesota residents 18 years or older, with priority consideration for artists residing in the Bloomington area; the City of Bloomington, Minnesota.
Minnesota-based Artist + Art Administrator workshops
provided for nonprofit organizations, local and regional arts councils, arts & entertainment districts, and units of government (town, city, county) in Minnesota; with support from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
New Jersey Artist + Art Administrator workshops
provided for New Jersey-based artists, and nonprofit organizations, local and regional arts councils, arts & entertainment districts, and units of government in New Jersey; in partnership with The New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Forecast consulting partners Candida Gonzalez and Aki Shibata led these in-person and virtual workshops with local and national guest panelists.
INTRO TO PUBLIC ART CONSULTING for Minnesota-based BIPOC Artists and Individuals
In 2023, we launched Intro to Public Art Consulting, a new workshop designed for Minnesota-based BIPOC artists/individuals, with little to no public art consulting experience, who are interested in a public art consultant career. This workshop builds on Forecast’s 2018 pilot GroundWork, a program designed by Forecast to support the work of consultants of color in the fields of public art, community-engaged design and place-based development. That 2018 program led to five participants joining Forecast’s consulting team in 2019 as consulting associates, four of whom are actively working with Forecast on projects today. One of those associates, Candida Gonzalez, now leads Forecast’s popular Making It Public workshop trainings for artists and administrators nationwide and led this new Intro to Public Art Consulting workshop.
Focused on people who are relatively new to the public art consultant career, Intro to Public Art Consulting is a five-week virtual workshop for Minnesota-based BIPOC artists/individuals with little to no public art consulting experience, aiming to give participants an understanding of how to start on the path to public art consulting. The workshop consists of recorded and live sessions [all virtual] over the course of 5 weeks, and engages guest speakers in discussions. Workshop content presented through an equity lens with a particular emphasis on giving BIPOC individuals knowledge and resources to explore public art consulting as a career path.
INDIVIDUALS TRAINED
of participants identify as BIPOC
Guest speakers (from left): Tricia Heuring, LM Brimmer, Witt Siasoco
Banner image: 2023 Early-Career Project Grantee Lea Friesen worked with youth for her project, Growing Healthy Communities, creating a large-scale collaborative mural promoting community health and wellness in rural northern Minnesota. The mural was installed at the Itasca YMCA in Grand Rapids, designed and painted with input from youth in the Y's childcare programs. The finished mural celebrates local food and healthy communities while enriching the surrounding neighborhood with highly visible public art. Artist grant program featured project images: Photos by Drew Arrieta. FORWARD images: Cover: (Issue 6) Heat Response, from artists Eve Mosher, Jenna Robb, José Ortiz-Pagán, and Amber Art and Design in partnership with Trust for Public Land, is a multi-pronged project including video, murals, and mobile engagements that uplifted residents’ concerns about urban heat impacts, including this pop-cycle at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Flower Show. Photo courtesy Trust for Public Land.. Featured FORWARD programming: (Public Art Now with Jessica Mehta and Gregg Deal graphic): Take Back the Power mural by Gregg Deal. Workshops and Trainings: (MIP photo) by NeDahNess Rose Greene. Intro to Public Art Consulting LM Brimmer photo by N. Musinguzi / Musinguzi Projects.