PUBLIC ARTIST
Chicago-based Lynn Basa and Steven Weaver state that being a public artist may not be for everyone; negotiating community expectations, budgetary restrictions, and environmental conditions are part of every public art commission. Artists Basa and Bernard Williams expose the complicated practices and loss of creative control and rights that challenge artists in public art commissions.
Joel Straus
Principal and Public Art Collaborator,
Straus Art Group
Christian Paz
Muralist and Street Artist
Artwork by Rahmaan Barnes, Damon Lamar Reed, Max Sansing + Bernard Williams, Woodlawn Works, 2015
Steven Weaver
Former Executive Director,
Chicago Public Art Group
Lynn Basa
Artist, community developer, and author Lynn Basa excels in bringing large-scale visions to life in all her practice areas. Her public art commissions, encompassing works in mosaic, glass, steel, terrazzo, and light, can be found in university buildings, train stations, airports, and other public spaces from Portland, Oregon to Providence, Rhode Island.
With an M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an M.P.A. in Public Art Policy from the University of Washington, Basa has built a career in the arts over 35 years, becoming a highly sought-after public artist, painter, author, and speaker. Her work, in tandem with her book, The Artist’s Guide to Public Art: How to Find and Win Commissions, has brought her to conferences, panels, and workshops across the country.
In Chicago, Basa mobilized her passion for preserving historical places, communities, and their stories by establishing The Corner Project, designed to revive the vintage, working-class main street where her storefront studio is located. In 2020, Basa made her film debut as a featured artist in the Art Vérité documentary production, Public Artist, providing insight into the process of a public art commission.
Bernard Williams
Painter, sculptor, and installation artist, Bernard Williams is a native of Chicago, IL. Since 1992, Bernard has been part of the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG), an internationally recognized coalition of professional artists, as a core artist, painter, sculptor, and muralist. He currently serves on the board of directors for CPAG. The artist embraces a range of formats in his work as expressions of his interests and concerns. His extensive large-scale work is a metaphor to reference American history, architecture, and the sciences. Since 2010, the artist has held six solo exhibitions of his work at venues including Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago, IL; Harper College, Palatine, IL; Waubonsee College, IL; and Booth Museum Cartersville, GA.
Bernard holds a BFA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an MFA from Northwestern University, and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME. He has taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 1990 and has completed numerous residencies around the United States. In 2015, he was awarded the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual Artist Award. His many other awards include International Studio and Curatorial Program Residency, Brooklyn, NY; Helen Coburn Meier & Tim Meier Foundation Achievement Award, Chicago, IL; and three Illinois Arts Council Grants; ARCADIA grant, New York, NY. Since 2009, outdoor sculptures by the artist have been installed in sites including Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO; Chicago Transit Authority and Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; and 39th Street Beach, Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL. Bernard Williams currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.
