PART TWO: ART AND COMMUNITY—PUBLIC ART IN ACTION
AUTHOR—TRAVIS KELLEHER
How the ‘known ’ enriches the ‘ unknown:’ PUB L IC r e s e a r c h
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PUBLIC’s main aim is expressed in FORM’s full name: FORM building a state of creativity. The double meaning, referring both to the ‘State’ of Western Australia and to ‘state’ as in ‘the condition of’, signals FORM’s conviction that good things happen in communities when being in a ‘state of creativity’ is encouraged and developed: challenges suddenly have more solutions, self-reflection is fostered, and a community’s vision of itself enlarges and becomes more inclusive. Yet as we advance towards a state of creativity, we move further into the unknown. How do we know if we’ve moved closer to our vision? What impact does our programming actually have on people? Do we succeed in promoting artistic excellence while bringing art and people together for the public good? During PUBLIC2015, FORM asked people to share their experiences of the program’s art, exhibitions, conversations and ideas. Sensitive, engaging measurement allows people crucial time for reflection, it can cement the relationship between audience and artist or organisation, and it can deepen and consolidate the cultural experience. Measurement also functions as an extra touch point with the public, who are after all, along with artists, the main reason that we do what we do. These infographics represent some of the more straightforward results, like attendance and what people did after visiting the murals. The research also asked more complex questions, however, both in terms of their qualitative nature and the actual meaning of the responses. We asked if people agreed with the statement, ‘It [the arts experience] could engage people from
different backgrounds’. This statement connects to the extent to which programming (like PUBLIC) reaches out to people in ways that embrace a diversity of cultural experience. 90% of people agreed that it could. There is something quite powerful in this response, as it appears to acknowledge not only the international diversity of PUBLIC’s artists but also perhaps the essentially ‘open’ gesture of the artworks in public spaces, their intrinsically charitable nature, their function as a ‘gift’ to anyone who might want to pause and look at them. There is also something of both a deeper and higher order at work, as responding to this statement required people to consider the artwork from the way it might appear and have meaning to others. FORM is effectively asking the audience to ‘think in the place of another’, to temporarily inhabit another’s viewpoint. When considering that ninety percent of people agreed that PUBLIC could engage a diverse audience, it says something about the ethical dimensions of both the artwork itself and people’s openness to being asked about it. Another statement was ‘It helped me feel connected to my community’. It’s worth pausing to consider just how high this statement sets the bar. Given that many people encountered the artwork surrounded by people they didn’t know, it’s almost audacious to ask this question. Yet 83% agreed that it helped them feel more connected to their community. Perhaps getting closer to building a state of creativity also means getting closer (collectively) to building a sense of community.