Public Art
Books on street art and graffiti worth owning, and what each is for
Four books on street art and graffiti worth a place on the shelf, from Subway Art to a world atlas of walls, and what each one teaches you to see outside.
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
Artistic activism and the city: when art takes a side in the street
Critical Mass rides, guerrilla gardens, occupied theatres and silent protests: how art takes a side in public space, the ethics involved and what lasts.
Commissioning Public Art in a Small Town, Step by Step
A practical step list for small towns commissioning public art: the brief, budget lines, open call or invitation, residents' input, upkeep and removal.
Stairs, bridges and shortcuts: small structures that change a walk
From Zagreb's tiny funicular to Lisbon's lifts and Plečnik's bridges in Ljubljana, why some stairs, bridges and shortcuts make a city walk so much better.
Listening to the city: soundwalks, radio art and field recording
From R. Murray Schafer and Hildegard Westerkamp to radio art and field recording, with a step by step method for leading a soundwalk in your own streets.
Art biennials in Southeast Europe, and how to visit one well
Istanbul, Athens, Belgrade and Manifesta's stops in the region: what the big art biennials of Southeast Europe offer, and a step by step way to visit one.
Bucharest beyond the boulevards: a walk through its cultural spaces
A walk through Bucharest's cultural spaces, from contemporary art in the Palace of the Parliament to Lipscani, Cișmigiu, the Athenaeum and interwar villas.
Plan a city walk
3 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, Berlin
Too far to walk between the walls? A hop-on hop-off ticket covers the gaps. Then follow our Berlin walk on foot.
See tours (Hop-on hop-off bus, Berlin)We earn a commission if you book.
Mara Ionescu
Florian Haslinger
Daphne Kourou
Luka Marić
Katrin Dahlmann