Public art isn’t just something nice to look at as one walks by a building or park. It fosters a sense of place. It creates community and brings people to that place. It can transform a landscape totally. And it can even be a signature landmark for a city.

Consider the LOVE statue in John F. Kennedy Plaza in Philadelphia, better known as LOVE Plaza. Or Cloud Gate, affectionately called “The Bean,” part of AT&T Plaza in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Or the Big Blue Bear peering into the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. These are just a few examples of public art that have become icons in their respective cities.

The Glass Medium

When one thinks of public art, the most common associations are with statues, sculptures, graffiti murals and other types of commissioned artwork. We often think of pieces made of stone, metal work and painted structures. While these mediums can be beautiful and contribute handsomely to a community in their own way, recent technological advances have allowed glass—specifically, glass combined with digital imaging—to become an excellent design medium for more ambitious and multi-functional applications that were not possible until the last decade.

Andante

As an example, Maryland-based artist Heidi Lippman was commissioned to create the artwork that is displayed in the Doyle Carlton section of the Riverwalk in Tampa, Fla., stretching beneath Interstate 275. The piece is titled “Andante,” an Italian musical notation for a walking tempo or walking music. Each panel printed with a unique design, the artwork incorporates linear elements that resonate throughout the 14 bays surrounding the city, consisting of 28 large glass panels.

The direct-to-glass printing process used in this piece allowed for an interplay of opacity and transparency, as well as the durability needed because of its exposure to the elements.

“I chose to use glass, which allows the focus to be on color and the strength of color,” says Lippman. “This process does that extremely well. And it’s not just the glass. There’s interactivity. The light around the artwork changes depending on the time of day and the seasons. It enhances and enlivens a walkway that is otherwise quite ordinary and bland.”

“The direct-to-glass printing technology that we utilize enables any design to be reproduced in glass,” adds Muhammad Arif, GGI decorative products manager. “Lippman created large-scale images that GGI was able to transfer onto the glass using this process, which also allowed us to evaluate and control the varying degrees of opacity required.”

A Collaborative Process

Public art can vary drastically in size: smaller pieces can convey a subtle or more intimate statement, while large, towering pieces can command the environment in which they are situated. The design process for public art is typically a collaborative one; it is intended to be an expression of—or in some cases an inspiration for—the community. “For some projects, adding public art means greater tax incentives, or variances to the building,” says Lippman.

Striding

“Public art can also soften the edges of more utilitarian buildings or spaces,” says Catherine Woods, a Florida-based artist whose work includes the glass sculpture “Striding” in Silver Springs, Md. She’s also currently working on a piece for a local police station. Woods says communities want the public to be more comfortable walking into places such as a police station.

“Police station architecture can be pretty intimidating,” she says. “We want to soften the edges a bit, make it less of a bunker-like appearance.”

Airports have also become great places for public art.

“It’s so nice to have something to make the often-stressful traveling experience much less stressful,” says Woods.

She enjoys working with glass because it is surprisingly durable and does things that no other medium can do. Woods says the digital imaging process using ceramic frit paint is the most colorfast, durable process for outdoor applications. For her “Striding” piece, Woods used glass discs as repeating modular elements, incorporating images from the surrounding community in each individual disc.

“[The glass] gives a lightness to exterior sculpture,” she says. “You can see through parts of it. You can have transparent, translucent and opaque options with glass. You get different effects with glass. I love that!” – AGG