Tri-Co Philly: The Nature of Public Art and the Ethics of Commemoration

PHIL B234 | Wednesday 2:30–4:30 p.m.
Macalester Bell, Bryn Mawr College

Philadelphia has the largest number of public artworks in the country and is also the first city in the nation to require that developers use a portion of their construction budget for public art. It is also home to a number of well-known memorials. In this course, we will take up a number of philosophical questions about the nature of public art, political aesthetics, and the ethics of commemoration using case studies drawn from Philadelphia. Some of the questions we will consider include the following: What is public art? What is public space? What is the role of public art in a democracy? Is there a distinct category of “street art” which can be distinguished from public art on the one hand and graffiti on the other? What is the moral value of commemorative art? What, if anything, do we have a moral obligation to commemorate and what grounds that obligation? How should we assess controversies surrounding the removal of art honoring persons or groups many judge to be morally objectionable, such as Confederate monuments? How should we memorialize victims of injustice?

We will explore these and related questions through contemporary philosophical texts and informed by case studies of public art and memorials in the Philadelphia metro area. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. Our class time will be used for lecture and discussion as well as walking tours and site visits.