This exhibition is a tentative step towards the interrelation of art and urban life. The city of Philadelphia has established a law providing that one per cent of the total construction cost of a public building must be devoted to the ornamentation of the structure with works of fine art. This law makes it possible for art to be brought to the center of urban living. Too often the artist’s sensibility and sensitivity are used long after all relevant planning has been done/ Most often he is then asked to somehow “beautify” the situation. It is hoped that this exhibition will have some effect on city officials by encouraging them to think in terms of what artists have to offer the city while it is still in its planning stages. It is a challenge to those who select art to develop a sensitivity to quality that extends beyond their personal tastes.

Hopefully, this exhibition will encourage more artists to broaden the scope and scale of their thinking and to direct their appeal not to an elite gallery attendance but to the vast audience of public spaces.
– Samuel Adams Green, Curator and ICA Director, 1967

Mark di SuveroDean FlemingPeter ForakisRobert GrosvenorEdward F. HigginsPhilip KingJoseph LeviAlexander LibermanAnthony MagarTamara MelcherAntonio MidkowskiForrest MyersEdwin RudaJason SeleyTony SmithLeo ValladorMichael Steiner