By Laura Townsend
In the midst of a peaceful Iowa City summer, it is easy to see why the public art around town is important to our community. Children jump and play around the spouting water on the Pedestrian Mall while their parents sit comfortably on the beautifully painted park benches. Every once in a while, a community member will sit at a public piano and play a few songs while passersby dance and hum along. I continually find myself enchanted by the Iowa Avenue Literary Walk and can get lost for quite sometime reading and re-reading the brass quotes in the sidewalk.
The public-art spaces do unite community members, providing a space for shared joy and celebration of art, music, and literature in the gorgeous summer weather. Does the public art make the same impact on the gloomy, dull spring days we have experienced recently? On these drab and dreary days, I believe the public art is more important than ever.
Saturation seems to be sucked out of the world when transparent drops of rain birth from a white-grey sky. It is hard to leave the warmth of home on such days, but the promise of color on the Ped Mall invites community members into a brighter space, where moods will be lifted and a sense of calm will overcome.
It may seem absurd to assert that a painted park bench is enough to change the mood on a rainy spring day, but the sparks of color can make a huge difference on an otherwise colorless afternoon. The use of color brightens the environment and the mood of a community along with it.
At the same time, the promise of music from the public pianos invokes an excitement and melodic mood that can change a day in much the same way as the painted benches can. It is rarer to hear the pianos being played on such days, but every once in a while, a musician will hit the keys and fill the area with a feeling of pure magic.
Just recently, I was walking through the Ped Mall when a young man sat at a piano and started to play. I smiled and lifted my chin as the music set into my ears, my day suddenly delightful and full of promise.
The public art in our community is there for us year-round, waiting to be enjoyed and celebrated. When we interact with the color, the music, the literature, we are igniting a sense of imagination and hope in ourselves that can rescue us from the dreariest days and let us thrive in the warmest.
We are fortunate to live in a city that values public art and invites us to immerse ourselves in it year-round. Let us not forget the positive impact of our city’s public art and the joy it can invoke in us.