The Present State—The title of this issue of PAR comes from the preface to A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain by the pioneering journalist and novelist Daniel Defoe (1660-1713). Written between 1724 and 1726, the book primarily describes the state of manufacturing and commerce in Britain just prior to the industrial revolution. PAR37 examines the present state of public art as it's produced within the borders of England, Scotland. Ireland, and Wales—separate nations with their own identities, flags, languages, and cultures—in the context of Britain's confrontation with the challenge of cultural diversity over the last fifty years. It also takes up internal debates within public art, particularly the perennial one about whether art in the service of social programs like "regeneration" limits the independent creativity of the artist. It's a portrait of a public art world that has become dynamic and promising "in many eminent particulars."
