The Artistic Treasure of Dallas
Using GIS to help Dallas's residents explore the art and culture on display throughout the City.
North Texas Sunrise by Dixie Friend Gay
The Office of Arts and Culture (OAC) at the City of Dallas, maintains an extensive collection of public art installations distributed throughout the city. While the City maintains detailed information about these artistic resources, the OAC wanted an application that would provide citizens with fun way to explore and learn more about the art within Dallas.
Vertebra in Three Pieces The Dallas Piece by Henry Moore
As with many projects like this, it began with a spreadsheet detailing each of the art pieces and a collection of images. While this information was very useful for the City's efforts to catalogue and document the artwork, it was not an engaging format for the public.
When the Office of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence (DBI) came across this data, it found the perfect opportunity to assist OAC and produce an interactive application that would create a more engaging experience for the public. Thanks to the foresight of the Office of Arts and Culture, the artwork data already included the latitude and longitude and/or address for each piece. As a result, mapping each installation was much easier and saved a considerable amount of time that would have been needed to process the data. Utilizing GIS technology, DBI created a map and then an application that greatly expanded the reach and appeal of this data to a much wider audience.
City of Dallas Art Installations Map
While a map can help citizens locate pieces of art, it does not draw the public in and showcase what might be found in their neighborhood park. To achieve this goal, DBI designed an application that would inform the public and showcase the artwork.
City of Dallas Public Art Explorer
The result of this partnership between the Office of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence (DBI) and Office of Arts and Culture (OAC) was an application that became the featured part of Dallas Arts Month in April 2021.
"In celebration of Dallas Arts Month, the Office of Arts and Culture (OAC) and the Office of Data Analytics partnered to provide residents and visitors with a map to find and explore City of Dallas public art.
The public can view art installations with new, high-resolution images, and detailed information about the installations. Art is everywhere in Dallas, in libraries, parks, recreation centers, and more. This public facing map of the OAC Public Art collection allows residents and visitors to easily explore Dallas for these Public Art pieces.
Public Art distinguishes our community. It conserves our public history and evolving culture, revitalizes public spaces, and enhances our quality of life. With this new map, the OAC Public Art Program makes the work of many artists accessible and provides places to encourage arts and culture to thrive and grow citywide. Everyone wants to know where art lives because art enriches our lives. If you look for it, you’ll find art is all around Dallas. The map is available on any smart mobile device or desktop computer." ~ Office of Arts and Culture, April 29, 2021
