This course examines recent Australian and overseas art situated in the public domain that addresses ideas of place and context. Public art can be an individualistic exercise but more often it results from professional collaboration between artists, designers of the built environment, and the community. Art in public places provides opportunities for design professionals to grapple with historical, social, cultural, environmental and other issues in the creative process. Increasingly state and local governments are developing policies to encourage site/place-specific art. This elective has two objectives: one is to examine aspects of the current theoretical discourse on public art, and to debate these ideas in student-led seminars; the other is to enable students to conduct research into local recent public art and to write a publishable critical appraisal of a particular work or artist. Lectures and excursions complement the seminar program.