By Ben Paynter, Fast Company
The winners of this year’s Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge examine gun violence, climate change, and food equity.
Each proposal is designed to both address related civic issues and bolster the local economy. That’s an idea that’s proven out: Bloomberg’s last Public Art Challenge ran in 2014 and eventually led to an estimated $13 million in economic growth across the four areas where projects were installed. So Bloomberg re-upped the idea in February 2018 with this competition that drew more than 200 entries from cities with at least 30,000 or more people. At its core, art is meant to be talked about. The hope is that more discussion leads to positive change–and perhaps a model for what’s possible elsewhere.