Public Art Walking Tours

The Governor’s Awards for the Arts were created to recognize noteworthy Pennsylvanians for their contributions to our commonwealth's artistic legacy. The awards were administered by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, on behalf of the governor. This ceremony moved to a different location in the state each time it was hosted. In 2017, the Governors Arts Awards were hosted in Lancaster, PA. At the time I was a member of the Public Art Advisory Board with the City of Lancaster, PA. We were challenged to think of ways we could help to celebrate and highlight public art in the city as part of the city-wide celebration.

I proposed and developed two public art walking tour events for the week leading up to the awards event. The goal of the tours was to highlight the variety of public art pieces found in our city and connect tour participants to neighborhoods that were often less highlighted. These tours were free to the public and required no pre-registration. Participants were asked to wear something red to be more easily identifiable and meet in the center of the city. The tour history was gathered by myself and fellow board member Salina Almanzar-Oree. Our board also worked with students from Atollo Prep and La Academia Partnership Charter School.

The tour structure was repeated after the Governors Arts Award event to highlight public art for residents and visitors during the City of Lancaster biannual Art Walk event.

Below are photos and videos from the tours.