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What we do

Public Art Agency Sweden explores and develops the interaction between contemporary art and public spaces. Through site-specific art, temporary interventions, urban development projects as well as discussions and publications, we strive to contribute to the development of both contemporary art and public spaces.

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A group of people in an open space All are leaning in various directions.
Image 2 of 5. Monument to work by Alexandra Pirici
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Permanent art

Public Art Agency Sweden produces permanent artworks for new buildings that will be used for governmental purposes. We work with everything from sculpture and the moving image to sound-based works and entire facades. We engage established international artists as well as emerging artists who have never previously worked with art in public spaces.

Temporary projects

For several decades now, artists have looked beyond traditional exhibition spaces to realise their art projects. Contemporary art has crossed into new areas that artists find interesting, from film and design to politics and journalism, to name just a few. There are many artists today who naturally explore different kinds of public spaces and questions about the public in their practice. In temporary projects Public Art Agency Sweden explores new practices together with artists.

Urban developments

Between 2010 and 2013 Public Art Agency Sweden worked together with the Swedish National Heritage Board, Boverket – the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, and The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design on the government project Samverkan om gestaltning av offentliga miljöer (“Collaboration on the Design of Public Spaces”). The project examined how the design of public environments can be strengthened through collaborations between professional groups and citizens in the planning and building stages. The project proved that different forms of artistic skills can contribute unique perspectives and bring new solutions to the urban development process. Public Art Agency Sweden is entering a new phase in 2014 and urban development is being incorporated as an integral part of our organisation, which will expand the way we work in the future.

Art collections

Public Art Agency Sweden creates art collections for government offices and buildings throughout Sweden and aboard. The collections have great artistic breadth and include both contemporary art and older works, mainly by Swedish artists. In environments such as national insurance offices, police stations, job centres, the UN headquarters in New York and Sweden’s embassies around the world, many people are able to experience the work of different artists and a diversity of artistic expressions in their daily lives.

Maintenance and administration of art

Since 2004, Public Art Agency Sweden has been responsible for overseeing both government agencies and private property owners in the care of government-owned art and permanent, building-related art.

The government owns approximately 100,000 public artworks located in more than 200 government offices and buildings throughout Sweden and some 100 embassies and offices abroad – a collection of high artistic, cultural and economic value. Public Art Agency Sweden supervises and supports government agencies and institutions in protecting and maintaining the government-owned art in their buildings in a professional way that preserves it for the future. We also provide guidance to about 100 private property owners in the care and management of the building-related art they have commissioned from Public Art Agency Sweden.