Acciones de Arte, was founded in 1979. CADA used the city as an art medium for collective work. CADA founders highlighted the effects of the Pinochet dictatorship on the country, which homogenized the country’s social and political landscapes. In addition to the more than 30,000 people tortured, about 3,000 people died and another 1,000 are still missing. This fear repressed all traditional means of public political discourse, but CADA methods were extremely ambiguous and encouraged conversation and questioning without direct political statements. y encounter with today’s Chilean public art began with a man named Andres, whom I met in a grungy Santiago bar. The bar, oddly called Harvard, was packed with quirky, suspicious-looking characters. Over a few watery pisco-and-cokes, Andres and I discussed his artistic motivations. A few years earlier, he was pursuing a psychology degree until economic hardships forced him to leave school. Andres explained his desire to support the education movement, but faced one problem: fear. During his first student protest, he said Santiago police attacked many students and provoked a stampede. Andres was trampled, suffered several broken ribs, and understandably vowed never again to attend a protest. As such, he supported the movement in a safer way, through art. I never saw Andres’s works, but he described them as abstract, cheerful depictions of his hopes for Chile’s education system. Andres
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explained that many artists turn to Santiago’s streets because apartments are often cramped and gallery spaces expensive. He joked that the city’s formal museums are useless because the best exhibits are always open and always free. y first realization upon returning to Durham was that it felt colorless. Just like Paris and Santiago, Durham is steeped in a history of racism, economic struggle and inequality. Why is it that Paris and Santiago are laden with impactful art, whereas it seems like Durham isn’t? Durham isn’t a cosmopolitan capital city, but it’s home to one of the best universities in the world and so, at a minimum, it’s a significant intellectual hub. In fact, most of Durham’s few— but exceptional—public art exhibitions were not created by individuals, but by institutions. A great example of this is the Pauli Murray Project. In collaboration with the Duke Human Rights Center, the Pauli Murray Project is a community-based effort to commemorate and proliferate the goals and values of civil and human rights advocate Pauli Murray. The project has created murals throughout the city to honor Murray’s
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achievements. These murals are one of few formal reminders that issues like racism still exist in Durham. Peter Coyle, Durham’s Cultural Master Plan Coordinator, described the complicated bureaucracy in place for evaluating and approving all of Durham’s public art projects. Even when the committee approves a public art project proposal, Durham residents have an opportunity for input. The committee holds public forums for these pieces and often, when residents live near the art’s proposed location, they