Art is all around — especially when you’re walking around Fairfax or Alexandria, where many murals, statues, and other forms of public art can be found. To make it easier to find and identify these artistic installations, both localities now have online tools that can map out where each piece of art stands.
Alexandria announced in May that it would join the Public Art Archive, a free, international tool that documents public art with the goal to “make public art more public.” Soon after, on July 13, the nonprofit ArtsFairfax announced the launch of its Public Art Locator.
Though Fairfax and Alexandria’s tools are on different platforms, they operate in similar ways: Just pull up the application and you’ll see a map of the city, with pins placed around the area to indicate that there’s art to be found.
If you click on the pin, you’ll see an image of the artwork, whether that’s a vibrantly colored mural on the side of a restaurant or a large statue, with information about what it is, the artist, and the owner.
“There are so many incredible projects in the city, and the online collection with the public art map tool creates an opportunity to highlight those projects within our community and to the greater region,” said Meika Daus, Alexandria’s Public Art senior manager.
The benefits of tools like this are manifold. They can help residents and visitors seek out art to view, help passersby learn more about the art that they see every day, and, in some cases, can help organizers understand how art is distributed throughout a community.
An important element of Fairfax’s tool is that the listings are submitted by users. If people see a piece of art, they can snap a picture and report it on the site, where it will be reviewed by ArtsFairfax and added to the map.
“By crowd-sourcing public art in our community, this inventory will help us identify where there are gaps and greater needs for community enhancement and creative placemaking,” said Linda Sullivan, the president and CEO of ArtsFairfax, in a news release.
ArtsFairfax said it will use this information as it develops Fairfax County’s Public Art Master Plan, which will aim to expand community access to the arts.
“Our vision on the Public Art Master Plan Task Force is to design an actionable plan for equitable community engagement and an arts presence in the lives of all who call Fairfax County home or who come visit us,” said Leila Gordon, Fairfax County Arts Committee chair and ArtsFairfax board member. “Art tagged in the locator will show us how residents discover and interact with public art in Fairfax so that we can better prioritize next steps in creating a plan serving the entire county.”
Users can also submit art to Alexandria’s archive if they find pieces that are not already listed, according to Daus.
Feature image of Confluent Threads by Project One Studio, photo by Ja’Mon Jackson, courtesy City of Alexandria
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