Introduction: a short history of the United States' "official" public art -- Roosevelt's New Deal -- General Services Administration's art-in-architecture program -- National Endowment for the Arts' art-in-public-places program -- Conventional wisdom: populist intentions within established paradigms -- Art as monument, art as memorial -- Art as amenity -- Art in the park, art as the park -- Art as the agora -- Art as pilgrimage -- Culture to go: from art world to the world -- What museums do for us -- My museum -- Education, outreach, programming -- The alternative museum/alternatives to museums -- Not quite "art, " not quite "public": lessons from the private sector -- The art of entertainment -- This is special, I am special -- Open pocketbook, open agenda? -- Embracing spectacle -- Super viewer: increasing individual agency on the public art front -- Power to the people -- Claiming space and place -- Dig in -- Conclusion: art for all? -- The trouble with (re)development -- Nonprofits and the ephemeral idyll -- Back to school -- Grieving loss, remembering life -- Two tales in one city.