Can a dancer help policemen interpret a suspect’s walk? Renée Loth looks at the history of artists engaging with city services to solve municipal problems.
Imagine a dancer working with police officers to better interpret a suspect’s gait. Or a musician teaching a city parking clerk how to listen deeply. Or an abstract painter rearranging a tangle of contradictory street signs. That’s the idea behind Boston’s new artist-in-residence program, which will embed local artists inside city departments to promote creative thinking about municipal government.
The idea is easily mocked — finger-painting at the Department of Public Works! — but give Mayor Martin Walsh and his team credit for trying new approaches to jolt the city bureaucracy out of its inevitable ruts. And since the residencies... Keep reading on The Boston Globe
Imagine a dancer working with police officers to better interpret a suspect’s gait. Or a musician teaching a city parking clerk how to listen deeply. Or an abstract painter rearranging a tangle of contradictory street signs. That’s the idea behind Boston’s new artist-in-residence program, which will embed local artists inside city departments to promote creative thinking about municipal government.
The idea is easily mocked — finger-painting at the Department of Public Works! — but give Mayor Martin Walsh and his team credit for trying new approaches to jolt the city bureaucracy out of its inevitable ruts. And since the residencies... Keep reading on The Boston Globe