Civic infrastructure is the physical places, systems, resources, and relationships that support how a community functions and how people experience, participate in, and shape public life.

It includes obvious physical infrastructure—libraries, parks, schools, streets, transportation, recreation centers, and public spaces—but it also includes the social and cultural systems that give those places meaning and make them work.

Public art can be part of civic infrastructure because it can shape how people experience a place, whose stories are visible, how communities identify themselves, and how people connect to one another and to their city.

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Public art is experienced by people—but not everyone experiences a place, an image, or a story in the same way.

As designers, we need to pay attention not only to what we see, but also to who is doing the seeing.

Take a few minutes to think about your own perspective.

You don’t need to share anything personal that you don’t want to share. The goal is simply to begin thinking about how our experiences, identities, and relationships to place shape what we notice and value.

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01 — I BELIEVE…

Public art should ________________________________________________.

What do you believe public art should do?

Should it tell stories? Create beauty? Challenge people? Build community? Create a sense of belonging? Remember history? Change how a place is experienced?

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02 — I NOTICE…

When I think about public art, I notice ________________________________________________.

Think about what you tend to notice first.

Who is represented?
Whose stories are visible?
Who seems to be the audience?
Where is the work located?
What makes a public artwork feel successful—or unsuccessful?

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03 — THE WHO THING…

Who gets to decide what stories, people, histories, and ideas are represented in public space?

Consider:

/ Who creates public art?
/ Who commissions it?
/ Who funds it?
/ Who maintains it?
/ Who is represented?
/ Who is missing?
/ Who gets to experience it?
/ Who gets to decide what belongs in a public space?

Then ask yourself:
How might my own identity, experiences, or relationship to place shape what I notice, value, or question?

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04 — AS A DESIGNER…

One way design might help us understand public art differently is ________________________________________________.

Think about what graphic design can do:
document • organize • map • compare • reveal • connect • interpret • question • communicate

What could a designer make visible, understandable, or accessible that might otherwise be difficult to see?

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ONE LAST QUESTION

If public art is civic infrastructure, what role can designers play in helping people see, understand, and experience it?

There is no right answer.

We’re starting with what we believe, what we notice, who we are, and what we can do as designers.