"Public art can express civic values, enhance the environment, transform a landscape, heighten our awareness, or question our assumptions. Placed in a public site, this art is therefore for everyone, a form of collective community expression -- from the once celebrated but now unrecognized general on a horse to the abstract sculpture that may baffle the passer-by on first glance."
— Penny Balkin Bach, art administrator.

"The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public."
— Henry Geldzahler, art critic

"Creativity not committed to public purpose is merely therapy or ego satisfaction."
— Ernest A. Jones, advertising executive