Public Art
Who looks after a public sculpture once the opening is over
Bronze, weathering steel, stone and concrete all age outdoors. Who should care for public sculpture, what the work involves, and a yearly care checklist.
Read the noteActopolis: a magazine of art in public space, cities and cultural participation
Seven strands
How we sort thingsPublic Art
Murals, monuments, sculpture and temporary installations: art made for everyone who passes, and the people who commission, make and look after it.
Urban Culture
How cities live: neighbourhoods, walls, markets, nights and the everyday culture that grows in streets and squares.
Participation & Community
Art made with residents rather than for them: workshops, community projects, play streets and the practical side of taking part.
Architecture & Space
Squares, courtyards, stairs, benches and housing: the built frame of public life and the decisions behind it.
Festivals & Events
Biennials, street festivals, carnivals and light shows: events that borrow the city for a few days, and how they are put together.
Culture
Theatre, sound, museums, books and ideas around the arts, inside the city and a little beyond it.
Travel
Walks, weekends and routes for people who travel to see how other cities use their streets, their art and their history.
Every note
Cities are made in public: on walls, in squares, in the queue at the market. We write about the art that happens there and the people who make it.
Actopolis follows art in public space from the first sketch to the last coat of anti-graffiti varnish. That means murals and monuments, but also the less photogenic parts: permits, maintenance budgets, a workshop in the rain, the neighbour who wants to know who is paying.
Our home ground is Central and Southeast Europe, where squares have carried empires, parades, markets and protests in turn, and where a lot of the most interesting cultural work happens outside institutions. Start with participation and community art, or with the courtyards and staircases in architecture and space.
Fresh off the wall
All notes
How to plan a self-guided street art walk in any city
A method for planning your own street art walk in any city: finding walls, checking they still exist, ordering the stops and walking with respect.
The East Side Gallery in Berlin: its history and how to see it well
How the East Side Gallery became the longest painted stretch of the Berlin Wall, which paintings to look for, and how to walk it from Ostbahnhof to the river.
Berlin street art tours: guided, free or on your own
How to choose a Berlin street art tour: a paid guided walk, a free walk paid in tips, a self-guided route, or a hop-on bus to link districts far apart.
What you need to paint a mural: surfaces, paint, tools and a plan
A practical list for painting a mural: checking the wall, choosing exterior paint, tools for height and straight lines, and working out quantities first.
Small museums in big cities: house museums and studios for autumn
House museums, artists' studios and collectors' homes in Athens, Vienna and Bucharest, with a table for pairing each one with a walk on an autumn afternoon.
Street art vs graffiti: what the words mean and why cities care
Graffiti, street art and murals are not the same thing. What each word means, where they overlap, and why the difference shapes city budgets and laws.
Plan a city walk
5 street art walks you can trim to the time you have, with distances and finishing times worked out as you go, plus 3 calculators for anyone painting a wall.
Open the AtlasBookable through our partner
Hop-on hop-off bus, Athens
Too far to walk between the walls? A hop-on hop-off ticket covers the gaps. Then follow our Athens walk on foot.
See tours (Hop-on hop-off bus, Athens)We earn a commission if you book.
Mara Ionescu
Florian Haslinger
Daphne Kourou
Luka Marić
Katrin Dahlmann