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Public Space Quotes

Browse 15 quotes about Public Space.

Public Space Quotes

“This deeply free and public space plays a vital role in our world, equally important in our digital age as in Greco-Roman times, when they were marketplaces for goods and ideas. As common ground, squares are equitable and democratic; they have played a fundamental role in the development of free speech.”

DemocracyCommon GroundPublic Space
Book:City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World
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“Christmas is about community, collaboration, celebration. Done right, Christmas can be an antidote to the Me First mentality that has rebranded capitalism as neo-liberalism. The shopping mall isn't our true home, nor is it a public space, though, as libraries, parks, playgrounds, museums and sports facilities disappear, for many the fake friendliness of the mall is the only public space left, apart from the streets”

CommunityCapitalismCollaborationCelebrationPublic SpaceNeo Liberalism
Book:Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days
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“Feeling in the middle of things, at the place to and from which streets flow, where people come not to escape the city but to be inside it: This us usually what defines a successful square. It is a space around which the rest of a neighborhood or town or city tends to be organized [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].”

Public Space
Book:City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World
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“And is it not the artists that make art? Well, no: criticism is now the substance of art making to such a degree that many of today’s public artists do away with the product as an issue, and make public debate the contents of their art. In doing so they are not redefining art so much as redefining public space. The debate itself has become the public space.”

ArtDebatePublic Space
Book:How To Like Everything: A Utopia
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“What do we mean by a public square? For starters, it is rarely square. . . . It may be a quadrangle or rectangle or circle or pretty much any shape, and it can be open or closed. It might even be a park . . . through which people pass, going from one place to another, not simply a retreat. A square is porous, balancing its porousness with some focal point, like a fountain or a reliable patch of sun with some benches that marks a break from the cars and streets and invites people to stop, look, exhale, find one another [Michael Kimmelman, "Part One: Culture: Power of the Place, Introduction"].”

Public Space
Book:City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World
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“Squares have defined urban living since the dawn of democracy, from which they are inseparable. From the start, the public square has been synonymous with a society that acknowledges public life and a life in public, which is to say a society distinguishing the individual from the state [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].”

DemocracyPublic Space
Book:City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World
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