I can’t draw or really do anything of the visual arts nature, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it.  What I love about public art is the fact that it is well public.  It doesn’t necessarily belong to anyone person, and it can reach and affect all those who get to see it, whether its someone that lives in Ithaca and walks past it every day to work or some random passerby.  The fact that Ithaca promotes and encourages the public art is amazing, because it helps to make what could be a drab concrete nightmare into a place of beauty and expression.

The one thing I loved most was that it was all so colorful.  I can imagine when the snow falls and everything seems coated on white that Ithaca can still have the same vibrancy of color year round.  One of my favorite color walls was this one of a little tiki figure guy. we didn’t get much of the back story on this one but I thought the colors really stood out.

The other really cool aspect of the tour was to see that some of the pieces artwork clearly were a message or a call to action and that it wasn’t just meant to be pretty but also though provocative.  One example I can think of was the mural to Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Tubman.  While the colors and the portraits were beautiful, the art also had an underlying meaning and to serve as a reminder of the horrors of slavery and the workings of the underground railroad. I included a picture of this mural below.

Lastly, I just want to comment that I liked that all of the pieces were so different.  It would be boring if we had art in downtown but all the art was the same.  The public art in Ithaca is reflective of the many diverse groups that live here.  Let me just add public art to the list of things I love about Ithaca.  I’ll include some more pictures below (btw the black and white one at the end was my favorite from the whole tour):