Swings: A Public Art Experiment

One new idea for every day in 2011. We're talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here's today's -- what's yours? Jeff Waldman has a thing for swings.The San Francisco-based artist was having a conversation last year about the simple pleasures created with two pieces...

By Claire Lawton

July 5, 2011

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One new idea for every day in 2011. We're talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here's today's -- what's yours?

Jeff Waldman has a thing for swings.

The San Francisco-based artist was having a conversation last year about the simple pleasures created with two pieces of rope and a wooden plank. A year later, Waldman has traveled to the Marshall Islands, Panama, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to install site-specific swings for public use.

"It's a universal message," he writes. "An appeal to celebrate the passions of our youth, to give in to simplistic urges, but mostly, to remind people of the difference a smile can make in their day and the infectious effect that a smile has on those they encounter."

The public art project has been funded by a grant from The Awesome Foundation, and Waldman is currently raising money to bring swings to Bolivia.

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