Palo Alto’s recent Code:ART, a free, biennial interactive media art festival, reminds us of the breadth, depth and impact of public art in cities across our county.

Code:ART transformed downtown Palo Alto into a vibrant playground of light, sound and imagination, reimagining the city’s downtown streets, plazas and alleyways into a luminous landscape.

Simply put, public art is art in public spaces. It is egalitarian, accessible and serves a wide range of community residents. While the term “public art” may conjure images of figurative bronze statues, today such art takes a wide range of forms, sizes and scales — and can be temporary or permanent. Public art might include murals, sculpture, memorials, integrated architectural or landscape architectural work, community art, digital media an

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