Back on Juneteenth we talked about an artist named Reginald Adams who's undertaken to paint murals around the country raising awareness of the holiday. He said "most of the kids in our inner city don't visit traditional art spaces," and that's part of why he's painting murals in cities.
But his comment doesn't apply to just kids. And that's one of the great things about public art-it reaches people where they are, where life is going on. Where people are busy with their day-to-day existence, art is suddenly there.
Usually when we think of public art, we think of murals and sculptures- at least I do: big pieces painted on the sides of buildings often with a social theme. Or a sculpture in a park, whether something abstract or a herd of cattle.
Far less often do I pause to consider that music can be public art; even less so do I think of dance as being public art. But they can be, obviously, when you think about it. And in becoming public art, music and dance can do the exact same things that murals can do. They can bring more people into the art world. They can reach into spaces that are not typically art spaces and turn them, in a flash, into just that.
Ja'Bowen Dixon is a dancer who grew up in Chicago. He's currently an adjunct faculty member at the Broadway Dance Center, a drop-in dance studio in New York that has, since 1984, offered dance classes to the public. Dixon is one of more than 80 teachers and is one of their tap specialists. He teaches up to 3 or 4 classes a week usually Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. So, if you happen to be in New York this week....
Lately, he's taken as his main performing stage a New York City subway platform on the Lower East Side/Gia Kourlas is the dance critic of the New York Times and went to check out the scene. After encountering Dixon's performances there she was sold. "His dances are containers for waves of energy that pass between him and a crowd," she said recently. "He can seem lost in his own world, dancing for himself until he feels the people around him drawing closer, looking - taking a break from social media to watch a live performance. That's when he sends his energy out to the crowd."
often, he'll invite kids up to teach them a step or two. "I'm inviting the kids up, and I'm wishing everybody a good day and that's intentional," he said. "You know, more than tap dancing, I'm working to bring some good energy to the city, to the moment where I am." It's those moments of connection that he makes between himself and another person that make the sparks. "Little interactions really mean a lot," he said, "because I feel like those are the things that make you know your art is really art. It's touching people." And that, I would say, is public art at it's finest.
