You’ve probably walked past it. You may have touched it, or spoke to it, or even participated in it. It’s that sculpture in front of your building, or that street performer, or even that mural on the side of a public school. You might pass by expressionistic statements like these every day and not even give them a second thought. You might not even consider that these seemingly haphazard items have a culture all their own and even a name: public art.

Public art is defined as: “works of art in any media that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the public domain, usually outside and accessible to all.” Dancing, graffiti, lighting, buildings, and sculptures all fall under the realm of public art.

Most cities have a percent for art regulation, which means that a percentage of the money set aside for a building or development project goes towards this cause. In New York, the law states that 1% of the capital budget for newly constructed or reconstructed buildings must be spent on art, which normally encompasses exterior art, but it can also be featured indoors.

Foundations for public art have existed for decades, and artists of world-renown have contributed to this movement, which constantly aims to make a statement or send a message depending on the era and time in which it is featured. Since the 1980s, one of the main goals of public art has been sustainability, meaning that it must benefit its surrounding environment.

Some famous exhibits to date include the Cow Parade in Chicago in 1999, the Horses in Saratoga in 2002, the Geckos in Hawaii in 2004 for breast cancer awareness, and the Crabs in Maryland in 2005 to raise funds for the school system through auction.

Some popular artists through the years that have contributed to the New York art movement include Alex Katz and the late Keith Haring, both associated with the Pop Art movement, and Mark Di Suvero and Anish Kapoor, world famous sculptors.

There are a wide range of county and state-based public art organizations that have commissioned the likes of the aforementioned artists and more. The Public Art Fund, which operates in New York City, is one such example.

The Fund, which was founded in 1977 by social worker Doris K. Freedman, primarily deals with outdoor sculptures, performances, and displays in New York City. They commission many projects in the metropolitan area that you may pass by every day and not even notice, as well as larger scale designs such as the “NYC Waterfalls”.

“Waterfalls” was a collaboration with the city of New York presented from late June to early October 2008. Described as “one of the most ambitious public art works ever created”, the Public Art Fund sought to call attention to the city’s “natural and built environment as well as our relationship to the waterfront” through the installation of four man-made waterfalls presented in New York Harbor.

The fund also promotes the works of established artists and upcoming talent through its “In the Public Realm” program, which chooses up to 10 artists a year to develop proposals for art and ultimately chooses three artists from this number to realize a project. The fund also spreads the word about art through featured discussions at the New School and publications documenting exhibits.

“We know the public can be angry at art, which I think is fantastic,” the late Freedman cites in the Public Art Fund’s 30th anniversary video on their website.

One of its upcoming exhibitions is entitled “Trapdoor,” on display until September 25th in Brooklyn’s Metrotech Center. It will feature three works by various artists that incorporate a changing element into each of their pieces. The exhibit is meant to represent transition and the feeling it evokes.

More traditionally-recognized public art might bring to mind images of “street art” such as graffiti, murals, or wheat pasting (adhering paper posters to walls and other surfaces).

The Groundswell Community Mural Project, which was founded in 1996 and is based out of Brooklyn, hires professional artists and young teens to collaborate on ideas with the city in order to create murals that make a statement.

Groundswell has partnered with various organizations to create their projects such as the Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Visual Resistance, an arts collective that uses art as a tool for social change. Their upcoming projects cover issues such as anti-gun violence, women in health, and a collaboration with former Black Panther Emory Douglas.

These art organizations have not been left untouched by controversy however, as was the case with “Informed, Empowered” a mural painted on the side of a residential building in Sunset Park and headed up by their Voices Her’d program, which examines issues facing women and girls. The mural’s theme was “Women in Military” and was aimed at the idea that women in lower-class neighborhoods were too often being recruited for the war in Iraq.

Per the website, the propaganda style mural aimed to show “…that women and teens have a variety of options for their future aside from joining the military,” as stated by Elizabeth Maroney , one of the artists that contributed to the piece. The mural received a large amount of attention as a result of its subject, including a write-up in the New York Times.

There are many artists not affiliated with organizations that attempt to create art on their own, such as the Brooklyn-based FAILE, a group of three men that have produced exhibitions the world over and cite Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein as their influences. They originally got their start by wheat pasting original prints and artworks of female nudes on the side of buildings in New York.

After they were arrested for displaying these prints, they decided to change their name to remind them of the challenges they faced through presenting their public art. They went on to wheat paste signs around the world and gained recognition without the help of an organization.

The culture of public art is so broad and full of variety that it seems to be omnipresent, causing you to think about issues you wouldn’t normally consider and making you believe that social change is possible with just the stroke of a brush or a nail and a hammer. So the next time you pass by a giant metal ring or a poster mounted to concrete, think about it for a minute; it may just change your life.