The life and death of five spaces: public art and community regeneration in Glasgow

Abstract

This article discusses the role of public art in the built form of western cities. Increasingly public art is being seen as an unquestionably good thing in urban regeneration discourse, in particular for its ability to (re)create urban communities. In part, this reflects the influence of `new genre public art' approaches which privilege art as process over art as product. However, this reading of new genre public art works can overlook the wider networks through which presence is facilitated, the very materiality of the artistic things produced, and how they are subsequently incorporated into everyday life. These agendas for the critical appreciation of public art will be developed through the example of the Five Spaces public art project in Glasgow, Scotland.