Forecast Public Art

The mission of Forecast is “to strengthen and advance the field of public art locally, nationally, and internationally by expanding participation, supporting artists, informing audiences and assisting communities.” Forecast also publishes the Public Art Review.

Northern Lights

Northern Lights is a “roving, collaborative, interactive media-oriented, arts agency from the Twin Cities for the world. It presents innovative art in the public sphere, both physical and virtual, focusing on artists creatively using technology, both old and new, to engender new relations between audience and artwork and more broadly between citizenry and their built environment.”

Public Address

Public Address is a new blog jointly presented by Forecast and Northern Lights. Its goal is to be a forum for wide-ranging discussion of innovative artists, projects, and practices in the public realm.

Forecast recently celebrated its 30 year anniversary as a leader in the field of public art. Northern Lights, while new as an organization, has over a decade of experience as a leader in the field of interactive art.

Contemporary art is increasingly “untethered” and moves from the white cube of the gallery to any site — including the virtual — to engage the public in its own realm. Public art is an ever-expanding field of inquiry, with artists of all stripes exploring the public realm. Beyond murals, monuments, memorials (and the occasional mime) public art has become a vibrant and engaging practice. From the spectacular to the quotidian, permanent to ephemeral, sited to virtual, material to performative, conceptual to cinematic, we believe there are unprecedented opportunities for new art practices in our shared environment. This is the critical focus of Public Address.

Jack Becker
Executive Director, Forecast Public Art

Steve “mediachef” Dietz
Executive Director, Northern Lights