Michele Bogart: The Politics of Urban Beauty

December 8, 2006 / 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Labyrinth Books
536 West 112th Street
New York, NY 10025

From Labyrinth:

Since its founding in 1898, the Art Commission of the City of New York (ACNY) has served as the city’s aesthetic gatekeeper, evaluating all works of art intended for display on city property. And over the years, the commission’s domain has expanded dramatically to include everything from parks and courthouses to trash cans and sidewalks. In The Politics of Urban Beauty, Michele H. Bogart argues that this unprecedented authority has made the commission host to some complex negotiations, involving artists, architects, business leaders, activists, and politicians, about not only the role of art in urban design, but also the shape and meaning of the city and its public spaces.  

Michele H. Bogart is professor of art history at Stony Brook University. She was vice president of the Art Commission of the City of New York from 1999 to 2003 and is a member of an advisory group to the commission. She also is the author of Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City, 1890 - 1930 and Artists, Advertising, and the Borders of Art, both published by the University of Chicago Press .