Tempe Public Art Plan

Tempe, Arizona

WHY

Tempe Public Art has grown significantly over nearly four decades, especially during a recent period of rapid city and regional development. Increased growth has brought more funding, expanded staff, and renewed public interest in integrating art into urban design and everyday life. As a result of this momentum, the City of Tempe is now poised to articulate a forward-looking vision for its public art program. A planning process was launched to engage the community, shape an aspirational vision for the program’s future, guide project decision-making and prioritization, and formalize policies and procedures.

HOW

Working alongside the Tempe Public Art team, Designing Local conducted an extensive public engagement process, offering more than 30 opportunities for involvement and engaging over 1,000 community members through both virtual and in-person methods such as surveys, meetings, focus groups, and public events. Community feedback emphasized creating a collection that reflects Tempe’s identity, supports local artists, promotes equitable access to resources and artwork, and incorporates interactive, diverse, and engaging art into everyday life.

WHAT

As Tempe Public Art enters a new phase of growth, its future vision builds on the program’s existing strengths while charting an inspirational path forward, shaped by input from community members, stakeholders, and staff. This plan will help to ensure long-term sustainability, increase innovation and impact, and maintain high-quality art citywide. Critical strategies include strengthening Tempe’s sense of place through public art in civic spaces and facilities, ensuring equitable geographic distribution, advancing signature projects, formalizing procedures, improving the Art in Private Development (AIPD) program, and enhancing collection management to maintain a robust, lasting public art collection.