Urban electives explore advanced topics in urban culture, politics, and ecologies. The content of the elective options varies from semester to semester.Section Description:Public art serves as a vital cultural and social asset. It enriches our urban landscapes and experiences and fosters a sense of community and belonging. Beyond its aesthetic appeal and capacity to beautify public spaces, it can inspire individuals to engage with their surroundings in new and meaningful ways. Public art can teach us how to make place (placemaking) and keep place (place keeping); make new memories and unearth old ones, look forward while respecting the past. The critical participant in public art is the public realm, the people, citizens, visitors, kids, adults who experience a place. This urban elective will introduce students to this growing field of practice through a series of lenses. We will look at and visit a lot of public art; we will explore the multiple types of public space that host public art; we will unpack the public processes that make public art happen and the economic impact it may have. The course will introduce different scales of art in the public realm, from integrated to freestanding, and explore some of the more community driven processes that become opportunities for public voice in the creative process.The course will leverage San Francisco, which is at the forefront of integrating public art in the public realm and one of the first to develop a funding mechanism to guarantee it. It will leverage our creative community by bringing in CCA faculty who are practicing public art; architecture faculty who are advising public artists; art consultants and public art commissioners who can help us understand the process and its impact. Nataly Gattegno has an active public art practice called Futureforms (www.futureforms.us).

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