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The Kansas City Design Center is pleased to present the inaugural lecture in our 2006 series, Transformations: Leadership for the Public Realm.

On Tuesday evening, February 7, 2006, Kathleen Coakley Barrie will explore the ways that art can inform the design and planning of urban spaces.

In 1985, Ms. Barrie founded the Cleveland Committee for Public Art (now Cleveland Public Art), which grew from a grass-roots dream to become a highly influential force in the aesthetic development of public space in Cleveland, as well as a key voice in the debate about Cleveland’s future as a city space.

"Public art already is a fundamental part of Kansas City's public realm," said Daniel Serda, KCDC Executive Director. Kansas City's parks and boulevards are graced by statuary and monuments, and Kansas City's one-percent-for-art program has decorated public buildings with instantly recognizable icons like Bartle Hall's Sky Stations, designed by artist R.M. Fischer in 1992.

But artistic input into the design process can and should go further, Serda claims, in re-shaping the city's fabric. "Part of our challenge," he says, "is to better integrate the creative processes pioneered by artists -- that is, aesthetic sensibilities about urban space -- into the civic design of the entire city."

As part of her visit to Kansas City, Ms. Barrie will lead a forum of community leaders exploring the role of art in shaping city design.

The lecture and leadership forum are made possible by the generous financial support of the Francis Family Foundation and the Dickinson Financial Corporation Charitable Fund/Bank Midwest.

About Kathleen Coakley Barrie

Founded in 1985 by a group of artists and civic thinkers, the Committee for Public Art was led and galvanized by Barrie for 15 years. The Committee's work evolved through such projects as the streetscape on West 6th Street, Viaduct Gateway Park on the riverfront, the park at Settler’s Landing, and Gateway Plaza. In each of these projects the Committee, under Barrie's leadership, was the catalyst needed to pull together architects, city planners, and artists, persuasively making the case that the aesthetic power of a building project would be enhanced by the addition of public art. Barrie and her committee forged a unique, broad-based community organization to strengthen the identity of Cleveland.

The most enduring legacy of Barrie’s work with Cleveland Public Art may well be the $1.3 million art project organized for the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library. Without the authority and credibility of the Committee for Public Art, this building would be without the flourish and panache that thoughtful art imparts. Many Cleveland artists are represented with top-quality work in this space, and more (including a commissioned sculpture by Vietnam Memorial creator Maya Lin) are featured in the Eastman Reading Garden, completed in 1998.

Cleveland Public Art continues to be a strong advocate for Cleveland architects, designers, and artists and, in many cases, has facilitated the commissions and funding that enabled artists not only to pursue, but actually to thrive, at their craft. It has provided the constant "noise" necessary to insure top priority for the arts. It has also been a strong force to unite neighborhoods around the design of public space.

Ms. Barrie most recently served as vice president of exhibition development for The Malrite Company, sponsors of the acclaimed International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Ms. Barrie is widely acclaimed as a distinguished expert in museum design, and is particularly noted for her work in experiential aspects of exhibition programming. She is the 1998 recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize, which celebrates significant, sustained achievement in visual arts, literature, music, dance, and architecture.