There are more than 800 pieces of public art in the city of San Diego, and hundreds more across the rest of San Diego County. The region received more than $10 million in state and federal grants for public art in the last five years.
Public art ranges from the famous — the Kissing Statue at the Port of San Diego or the Nikigator in Balboa Park — to the less well known. It can be found everywhere, from office complexes and the airport to panels on bridges to murals on the streets to decorative crosswalks and public utility boxes to the walls of libraries to public restrooms.
KPBS is embarking on a series to explore public art. Follow this series for stories about the artists who make these works, why public art is created, what impact it has and where it can be found. And we want to hear from you about what public artworks you notice or are most curious about.
Explore our coverage
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Compared to San Diego, public art in Tijuana's Playas de Tijuana neighborhood feels like a free-for-all. -
Salas was hired more than two decades ago to design something that would offset the drab, industrial feel of the adjacent wastewater treatment facility. -
Niki de Saint Phalle’s longtime assistant, Lech Juretko, still repairs each elaborate sculpture, stone-by-stone. But the cities that own the works of public art can’t always provide enough funding for necessary maintenance.
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