Susan Togut Public Art Gallery

Starting in 1984 I developed a public art esthetic that involved working in front of the public, revealing and making the creative process accessible, while inviting participation from viewers and community members. Until 1990 I created the installations as the sole artist, with small contributions from the public. Meanwhile, during this period I orchestrated many community-based murals and environments in schools or community settings as an educator/public artist. Following the creation of Propagation in Brooklyn, N.Y., I actively orchestrated public art projects as a facilitator, engaging non-professionals in the creation of collaborative art for their communities. In this vein projects followed in Bedford Stuyvesant through a Public Art and Education Program which I started ('90-96), continuing in schools and other community settings through the present.

From 1992-94 I headed up a design team in Philadelphia, Pa. developing an inner city Jazz Park with community members. I was involved with other design team/inner city community projects in Phoenix, Arizona and Denver, Colorado ('94). In 1997 I created the Healing Arbor on the Kingston, N.Y. waterfront with those touched by cancer through an art program I conducted at Benedictine Hospital for eight years. This turning point project, intended as temporary for the Sculpture Biennial of that year, became a permanent contemplative place that is renewed every few years. In 2006 I formed the Lifeforce Arts Foundation to mount education programs, new public art projects and maintain the Healing Arbor and other public places that will follow. The Arbor will again be renewed in 2007. Upcoming I will create a Living With Uncertainty Sanctuary with traumatic brain injured people at the Northeast Center for Special Care in Lake Katrine, N.Y., where I am the Director of Fine Arts.