The Phoenix Civic Space and Downtown Public Art

The City of Phoenix's public art program, administered by the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, is one of the more ambitious municipal public art initiatives in the country. The program's one-percent-for-art requirement — which dedicates a portion of capital improvement funds to public art — has produced a distributed collection throughout the city and a concentrated set of significant commissions in the downtown core. Civic Space Park at Central Avenue and Fillmore Street holds "Sky Harbor," a monumental suspended sculpture installation by Janet Echelman, whose aerial fiber weave changes color with the wind and light throughout the day. Installed in 2008, it has become one of Phoenix's most recognized public artworks. The Roosevelt Row Arts District's concentration of murals represents a different public art tradition: community-engaged, street-level, and evolving rather than institutionally commissioned. The Phoenix Art Museum's outdoor sculpture garden, accessible without admission during the museum's open hours, extends the public art experience into the museum's grounds. ASU Art Museum in Tempe administers a collection that spills out of the building onto the surrounding plazas and connecting spaces of the ASU Tempe campus.