Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, honors 38 outstanding public arts projects created in 2015 through the Public Art Network (PAN) Year in Review program, the only national program that specifically recognizes the most compelling public art. The works were chosen from 260 entries across the country and recognized today at Americans for the Arts’ 2016 Annual Convention in Boston.
CONFESS by Los Angeles artist Dani Dodge debuted at L.A. Pride in West Hollywood, CA, in 2015. She sat in a confessional and allowed participants to share their worst sins with her. The result was not sacramental grace but a twisted penance and an anonymous typed note that detailed each transgression on a gold piece of paper. Thus absolved, at least in the eyes of art, confessors could move forward unburdened. The confession booth was within a 20-foot-square space with walls on three sides covered by black fabric. As the weekend went forward, the walls went from black to gold with people’s deepest sins revealed.
“These Public Art Network Year in Review selections illustrate that public art has the power to enhance our lives on a scale that little else can. Whether subtly beautiful or vibrantly jolting, a public art work has the singular ability to make citizens going about everyday business stop, think, and through the power of art appreciate a moment, no matter how brief,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “I congratulate the artists and commissioning groups for these community treasures, and I look forward to honoring more great works in the years to come.”
“One woman wrote me an email after participating in the piece and said the experience made her cry, but also transformed her two most important relationships, the one with her mother and the one with her lover,” Dodge recalls. “To have a profound impact on a human soul is the greatest gift an artist can receive. But this recognition by PAN is pretty cool, too.”