Laura T. Smith: Teaching

What is "public art"? How does it identify and interact with its audience? How does it engage with public spaces? In this course, we'll investigate public art works such as Judd's installations in Marfa, Texas, Austin's Cracks in the Pavement project, and UT's statuary.

We'll look at the role of artists in the public sphere through examining the urban "guerrilla poetry" movement and subway poetry projects. Lastly, we'll examine community performance from the Children's Theater Action Project in Austin to the daily demonstrations on West Mall.

Through our study of these works, we'll examine the rhetoric of public art, particularly the way art and artists participate in the dichotomy between high art and public art, the idea of an art-consuming public, and ultimately, notions of art and class. We'll also discuss the rhetorical distinctions between art and advertising.

In our examination of art and community, we'll give particular attention to the issue of audience, since this is a major concern for the creation and funding of contemporary and future work. We'll also interrogate the current disagreements about the purpose and definition of "art" by investigating some controversies surrounding public art works.

Required Texts:
Coursepack (available at Speedway Copy at Dobie Mall)
SF Express. Ruszkiewicz, Hairston, Friend ISBN:0131969862.