Artful change: public art and city regeneration

Public art has been used successfully in internationally renowned, privately funded regeneration schemes. However, its use does not provide an immediate recipe for success in all situations. Through discussion of case studies in Birmingham and Swansea, explanations for the controversy that certain pieces have generated are explored. The problems of interpretation of public art, which - as a medium - involves providers, artists and audiences, are considered. Finally, the use of ‘genre’ as a set of rules to govern meanings is proposed as a useful tool for the analysis of public art in an urban context.