Reimagining Public Art in America: Report presentation + peer exchange

Join the effort to make public art policies + practices more equitable
Let's work together to make change in the public art field. At this report presentation and peer exchange, Reimagining Public Art in America, you'll hear about Forecast's nationwide listening effort and the recommendations we heard from BIPOC artists and leaders around the country, and we'll discuss next steps.

Reimagining Public Are listening session artist note-taking, February, 2023:

You'll hear from (alphabetical by first name):

Aki Shibata 
(she / her / hers, they / them / theirs)

Aki says that she “creates more places and ways to let people meet their peace.” Born in Tokyo, Japan, Aki moved to the US for her art education, graduating in 2007 with a BFA in photography from the College of Visual Arts, Saint Paul. Her artworks are an examination of her body and mind in public gallery spaces. In 2017 she founded and led the artist collective CarryOn Homes, a team of artists from five countries dedicated to telling the stories of immigrants and refugees in the USA through art. Aki recently started a new position as Director of IDEAL Center at the Science Museum of Minnesota, where she previously worked on creating more inclusion and equity for all with Science House Professional Development Group. She also runs the Teaching Artist minor program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. As a Forecast consulting partner, Aki works with Forecast on a variety of projects, from the Making It Public workshop administrator track and other curriculum development, to public art strategy planning and RFQs, and as the Artist Support Grant Coordinator for Forecast's annual Public Artist Grants.

Jen Krava
(she / her / hers)

Jen holds master’s degrees in public art & design, and landscape architecture, and approaches her work with a multi-directional lens to investigate contemporary issues in public art, placeknowing, and creative economies. As Director of Programming + New Initiatives, Jen sets the vision for consulting work at Forecast and works on projects invested in community driven research and prototyping. She leads arts and culture planning efforts, facilitates equitable RFQ processes, curates public art projects, develops and facilitates customized training, creates online learning systems and content, develops regional capacity building, manages Forecast’s artist grant program, and leads the Change Lab, which is focused on building equity in public art across the country. Jen is the past co-editor of _SCAPE, ASLA-MN’s publication, and a visual artist, studying human relationships to their surroundings, the connection between garments and social perception, and gender challenges in public. Contact Jen to discuss Forecast's client services.

Mallory Rukhsana Nezam
(she / her / hers)

Mallory is a cross-sector culture-maker who loves cities and believes that we have the tools to make them more just and joyful. She specializes in public art, creative placemaking/keeping/knowing and the public domain. Through her cross-sector practice, Justice + Joy, she engages government, artists, advocacy groups, elected officials, community members and urban planners to de-silo the way we run cities and build new models of creative, interdisciplinary collaboration. She has helped build inaugural arts & culture teams in non-arts organizations at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council of Boston, Transportation for America and PolicyLink. She is a co-founder of the Civic Artists in Residence Lab (CAIR Lab).

Raised in St. Louis, MO, she was the founder of St. Louis Improv Anywhere, and collaborating founder of the St. Louis Artivists. Through her art practice she disarms and disrupts public space norms using play and participatory performance. She holds a Master of Design from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and her research focuses on the racial equity impacts of artists residencies in local government. She was a 2020 Monument Lab Transnational Fellow, a 2019-2020 inaugural Practices for Change Fellow at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute of Design & the Arts and a 2018 National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellow. She seeks to be in every room she’s not supposed to be in.

Since its inception in 2020, these public art listening sessions have been a goal of Forecast's Change Lab, the deeply experimental, rigorous and audacious wing of Forecast that catalyzes new thinking, tests new approaches and disrupts the status quo to advance justice in public art. These kinds of initiatives are possible through the generous gifts of our community. Donate today.