Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 01/09/2025

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participation and allows people to imagine societal alternatives. Consequently, this opening of the individual's imagination "allows for and encourages more active and consistent participation in public life by supporting change (even major change) without fear of total disorder." (Boros 2010, p. 81) In the United States, the federal government has been a component of public art projects since the 1800's. The U.S. Capitol Rotunda was one of the first intentional displays of art for the new democracy. President John Quincy Adams reportedly struggled with the complexities of an elite patronage being the arbiters of art for the nation, but, ultimately supported federal government sponsorship of art, emphasizing how art would exhibit the nation's progressive and civilized values (Senie and Webster 1992, P. xii). The role of government involvement in public art has been a source of controversy throughout America's history and continues until this day. Finkelpearl (2000) notes that the history of public art is commonly told with an emphasis on the word"art"with very little consideration to the public context. The City Beautiful Movement of the late 19th and early 20th century grew out of the 1893 Chicago World's Columbia Exposition and launched a public awareness of public space and the value of aesthetic enhancement to that space. Other cities across the nation were spurred to consider improvements to the quality of their public spaces, which included public plazas, public buildings, parks, and transportation thoroughfares. William Wilson(1989)writing in The City Beautiful Movement describes it as a time when Americans made significant efforts to improve their cities, making them beautiful, functional and desirable places. As such, it not only included discussion of the aesthetics of public space, it also included political, social and economic components, and"demanded a reorientation of public thought and action toward urban beauty" (Wilson 1989, p. 1). The movement was the start of wide spread comprehensive planning in 43