public art Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Artists Bring People And Kids Together For Tacoma’s BLM Mural Project Design

By Lauren Gallup July 8, 2022

Images of the mural design, which will cover Tacoma's Tollefson plaza, created by Dionne Bonner.

Later this summer, Tacoma’s downtown Tollefson Plaza will be transformed into the first Black Lives Matter mural sanctioned by the city and other partners. The project is designed to acknowledge police brutality of Black people and racial inequities that came to nationwide attention after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Read More

Tacoma-Based Artist Tells Stories Through Her Public Work

By Lauren Gallup June 7, 2022

Artist RYAN! Feddersen, who's first public installation was in Tacoma in 2019. Photo by Mario Gallucci Studio

For artist RYAN! Feddersen, art is a form of communication; a way to understand the world and a catalyst for meditation. “A lot of my interest in art was about making things for community, as a way to interpret our world,” Feddersen says.Read More

How A College Prank Turned Into A Public Art Tradition

By PBS Newshour February 11, 2020

Lady Liberty atop Lake Mendota, seen in February 2019. Photo by Jeff Miller. Photo courtesy of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

The inflatable replica that rests on the lake’s solid surface isn’t a political statement, nor a throwback to the ending of 1969’s “Planet of the Apes,” but a decades-long tradition founded on a good laugh. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has staged the display at different times for more than four decades, starting in 1979 as a campaign stunt.Read More