Best Public Art Event

Atlanta was many things before Living Walls began painting the city anew: Civil War remnant, civil rights bastion, Southern rap capital. But like the proverbial phoenix symbolized by the city's continual rise from ashes, an organization co-founded by a Peruvian transplant has helped spark the latest rebirth. In the past five years, the volunteer-run public art nonprofit Living Walls, the City Speaks has hosted more than 100 street artists from all over the globe to paint murals throughout the heart of Atlanta. In many neighborhoods, they've turned decay into beauty. The street cred hasn't come without criticism. Yet even that has sparked at LW conferences the kind of public conversation — surrounding issues of urban decline and gentrification, class privilege and the role of public art — that usually only happens in private. Led by feisty visionary Monica Campana, Living Walls is transforming the look of the inner city, and knocking down some long-standing walls in the process. (Go backstage with Living Walls Communications Director Jasmine Amussen.) less...

Working with an old house in the historic Old Fourth Ward, a softball field, a vacant lot, and a growth of kudzu behind a strip mall, JOHN Q'S MEMORY FLASH uncovered Atlanta's queer history in the most typical of places. Oral histories from Jolly Twelve member Freddy Styles, drag queen Billy Jones, and softball players from the Atlanta Tomboys informed Memory Flash's installations and performances, and created an unforgettably resonant connection between the past and present. www.fluxprojects.org less...

It's not entirely public, since viewers still have to fork over a $12 admission fee, but the Atlanta Botanical Garden's "CHIHULY IN THE GARDEN" got ordinary people talking about the power of art in an unexpected setting. An exhibition that "plants" Seattle artist Dale Chihuly's organic-shaped glass creations among the garden's flora has helped double attendance at the garden, achieving just what art needs to do to succeed: ignite the imagination of a broader audience. The exhibition continues through Oct. 31. "Atlanta Botanical Garden, 1345 Piedmont Ave. 404-876-5859. atlantabotanicalgarden.org" less...