Notice Board

Art NOW Series - Ciara McKeown

Public Art as Process

This talk discusses public artworks and practices based in contemporary anti-monumentalism. It explored process- and performative-based public art practices as meaningful ways to understand the evolving city and respond to the current cultural moment. By questioning the public art commissioning process, McKeown examines the parameters and limitations of a definitive and singular process that can curtail diverse artistic practices and public dialogue.

Biography

Ciara McKeown is a public art commissioner, curator, director and project manager, and has worked with multiple arts organizations across Canada and the US for over a decade. She was recently a Project Manager with artists' Sans façon, working collaboratively to complete the CSO Art Master Plan for King County, 4Culture in Seattle, and PLUS, the Succession Plan for Watershed+, City of Calgary’s renowned public art project. McKeown is currently managing her own business researching, writing and working with clients on public art planning and commissioning. She is currently the Public Art Curator for Edmonton Arts Council's Jasper Avenue Streetscape project.

Ciara is an Executive Board Member with Public Art Dialogue, and was Co-Organizer of Public Art: New Ways of Thinking and Working, a symposium hosted by York University in May 2017, the first of its kind in Canada that invited cross-disciplinary perspectives and research to critically examine the current state of Canadian contemporary public art practices. She has lectured on public art at Esker Foundation, The University of Calgary, McMaster University, and has written in The Calgary Herald, Stephen Magazine, Public Art Review, Americans for the Arts, and her essay on Watershed+ was recently published in the University of Calgary’s Institute for the Humanities Water in the West catalogue. Ciara holds an M.A from New York University and a B.A from McGill University.

Image: Forest Lawn Life Station. Photo credit: Sans façon.