about hps
Hiding in Plain Site (HPS) seeks to shine a light on the often misunderstood, complex global public art ecosystem. Our goal is to increase awareness, understanding and appreciation for the field, and increase support for the growing community of talented artists around the world. The festival features site-specific work, community-engaged projects and processes, outdoor installations, performance-based works, and experimental approaches to art in public space. With help from HPS, the stories of public art will no longer be hidden!
Special thanks to our fiscal sponsor, Film North, as well as NowYouSeeMe!, the original international public art short film program that served to inspire HPS.
Jurors
Leon Tan (PhD) is an interdisciplinary practitioner, educator and psychotherapist whose research focuses on digital culture, design and the public realm. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Industries at Unitec Institute of Technology (Auckland, New Zealand) and Director of Propensities Research, an independent practice probing the limits of how institutions and machines model the world. Formerly Co-Editor-in-Chief of Public Art Dialogue (Taylor & Francis, USA), he published The Routledge Companion to Art in the Public Realm with Cameron Cartiere in 2020 and has presented public and media projects at venues including Momentum, the Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art (2017), and the Taipei Biennial (2012).
“Hiding in Plain Site makes the stories behind public art visible, from community-built projects to monuments and street performance. It is a program that travels well, and one that will send audiences home looking at their own streets differently.” – Leon Tan
Maribeth Romslo is a director, producer, and writer who believes that well-told stories have the power to change the world. Her award-winning films have played at festivals across the globe. Her conceptual dance film (Kitchen Dance) premiered at Minneapolis Institute of Art in March 2023. Recent projects include an original documentary series (Handmade*Mostly) for Reese Witherspoon’s new media platform, Hello Sunshine, and a documentary about student free speech in America (Raise Your Voice). Maribeth’s work can be seen at maribethromslo.com. She lives in Minneapolis where she is pursuing her Master of Arts degree at Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
“What happens when art leaves the gallery and enters the world? This varied collection of films takes us from city streets and forgotten waterways to remote landscapes and community gathering places, revealing how public art can challenge, delight, provoke, connect, and transform the places we share. Across cities, rivers, deserts, neighborhoods, and continents, these films reveal artists transforming the spaces around them and inviting us to see the world differently.” – Maribeth Romslo
Noa Karavan Cohen lives between Tel Aviv and Florence. For more than four decades, her work has focused on the preservation of artistic and cultural heritage, particularly art in the public domain. She has initiated, curated, produced and directed international cultural projects, exhibitions, conferences, artistic events and documentary films. In 2010, she initiated ‘The Fate of Public Art’, an international symposium in collaboration with UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, bringing together leading experts to address the protection and preservation of public artworks. Since 2012, she has co-directed and produced ‘Archive of the Future’, a documentary project she initiated aimed at the preservation of the voices and cultural legacy of Israel’s first generation of intellectuals.
In 2014, she founded NowYouSeeMe! International Public Art Short Film Contest, in collaboration with the Journées Internationales du Film sur l’Art at the Louvre Museum. She served as its artistic director until 2020 and secured the participation of jury members such as: Wim Wenders, Daniel Buren, Anish Kapoor, Jaume Plensa, Jochen Gerz and Kimsooja. Noa has also served as President of ‘Artists for Public Art 1777’, an association dedicated to protecting public artworks and defending artists’ moral rights.
“There are so many works of public art around us. All we need is to look around and discover them. Hiding in Plain Site is a real celebration of public art. It's so exciting to discover such a diversity of ideas and talent.” – Noa Karavan Cohen
directors
HPS founder and director Jack Becker has been embedded in the field of contemporary public art for fifty years, as an artist, educator, producer, consultant, curator, writer, publisher, and administrator. Best known as the founder of the nonprofit Forecast Public Art, based in Minnesota (US), Jack also founded Public Art Review, an international magazine devoted to contemporary public art. In the 1980s, he served as the first Art in Public Places coordinator for the City of Minneapolis, as well as Arts Development Manager for the City of St. Paul.
Recipient of the 2007 Award of Excellence from Americans for the Arts, the 2014 Public Art Dialogue Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2016 Alumni Achievement Award from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Jack currently serves as an advisor to the Institute for Public Art and the Public Art Exchange.
Paige Dansinger is an XR artist, curator, educator, and community builder working at the intersection of immersive media, cultural storytelling, public art, and emerging technology. As Director of the XR Women Museum and Founding Director of Better World Museum and Horizon Art Museum, her work explores how XR, video, AI-assisted media, and participatory digital environments can expand access to creative expression and amplify community voices.
Her practice spans experimental media, virtual world-building, interactive storytelling, and hybrid forms of contemporary moving-image culture. Paige has presented and collaborated internationally through organizations and events including MIT Reality Hack, Meta Connect, TEDx Minneapolis, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Augmented World Expo, the Met Museum, Games for Change, and Miami Art Week.