A Foundation for the future of Public Art and the development of cities and it’s communities

Make it stand out.

Significance:  

The City of San Jose has been home to Barbara Goldstein and her husband, John, since 2004, when she took the job of Public Art Director for the City for 8.5 years. She brought her knowledge, experience, network, and grit after her time as the Director of Design Review & Cultural Planning, Public Art Director for the City of Los Angeles and the City of Seattle, respectively. As the San Jose Public Art Director, she managed major projects, including the development of public art in 24 branch libraries, 9 fire stations, 6 community centers, a new police substation, and the award-winning Art + Technology program at Mineta San Jose International Airport. She found ways to partner with the non-profit organization ZERO1 by commissioning temporary art projects during the Biennial of 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012. The projects she managed with her incredible staff led to San Jose Public Art being named Program of the Year in the Americans for the Arts (AFTA) Public Art Year in Review. In 2016, Barbara was honored with the Public Art Network Award for her public leadership in advancing and enriching communities through the arts by AFTA, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education.  

Innovation:  

Some public art projects Barbara managed include but are not limited to the following: 1) Coatlique Shopping, Tula Sentries, & Mandalas by internationally known artists Einar and Jamaz de la Torre was installed in 2005 in East San Jose. 2) Illuminating Downtown Program which combines art and high-tech strategies to physically manifest San Jose to be more animated and interactive, and to create safe and walkable areas. 3) Recognized nationally are Space Observer by artist Björn Schülke and the most outward facing public artwork HANDS by artist Christian Moeller in 2010, where community engagement played a key role in creating the artwork and representing the diversity in San Jose.  

Barbara’s work for the City of San Jose has reached beyond our city limits and into the hands of colleagues, students, and those interested in the field through her authorship of the first of its kind, Public Art by the Book, which continues to be a primer on the practice of public art. It was published by AFTA and the University of Washington Press in 2005. She worked with her extensive nationwide network of professional colleagues to focus on chapters that include funding, artist selection, community engagement, gifts and memorials, and collection management. The book is still referenced by many colleagues and curious minds today, eighteen years later. 

Inclusiveness 

Throughout the last four decades, community inclusion has been a part of the projects and programs she has worked on. Working in Los Angeles during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Barbara pressed the importance of community input in developing a public art response for the community impacted by the riots. From this experience, she continued to work with communities in mind and with a DEAI lens when developing the public art programs in the cities she later worked in. In San Jose, she successfully developed public art frameworks that push DEAI efforts where artists and organizations across all intersectional backgrounds received fair treatment and had access to oppurtunites. As a San Jose resident she advocates for the preservation of a communities’ histories, culture, and stories to be heard when new development takes place. As a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum (ALF) and a member of the ALF Cultural New Deal Silicon Valley Committee, Barbara has used her voice to speak up for the creative community, who don’t have a seat at the table. She has dedicated her time for several meetings, presentations, and advocacy with the developers in downtown, festival and arts presenters, business owners, and neighbors. Not only has Barbara created a welcoming and open environment for artists and community members, she has also done so for visitors. As a board member of the Chicanx/Latinx contemporary arts space MACLA, Barbara has immersed herself in supporting the organization by hosting visiting artists in her home and welcoming them into the San Jose community, among other ways she has provided support for the organization since 2012. Additionally, in Feb 2023, Barbara volunteered to project manage the visual art component of the San Jose Jazz Winterfest: Counterpoint with Ukraine. Barbara worked closely with Ukrainian artist Lesia Khomenko. Through virtual conversations with the artists, the free outdoor exhibit, Unidentified Figures, was created in the Unzipped Pavilion in the SoFA district.  

In 2010, Barbara started Barbara Goldstein & Associates, and would soon turn it into an opportunity for loca diverse women. In 2020, the women-led, public art planning, consulting, policy, curation, and community engagement firm Art Builds Community was created. ABC consists of three like-minded and passionate women, Amanda Rawson and Quynh-Mai Nguyen, who are multidisciplinary and diverse within their cultural, generational, and professional backgrounds and experiences. Barbara has gradually taken a back seat in the projects ABC has worked on, leaving space for Amanda and Quynh, to take the lead and be the face of the business. Barbara has demolished the walls of hierarchy and ageism in the workplace, allowing the San Jose business to grow and succeed in the field. Barbara founded Art Builds Community so that the next generation of art planners, artists, policymakers, and advocates can shift archaic white patriarchal design thinking to a more inclusive and representative practice for the communities in these various projects.  

Timing of Recognition  

After working in the public art field for over thirty years, settling in San Jose with her husband John, 2023 could not be a better year to recognize Barbara's many accomplishments. Barbara has shared with her colleagues, Amanda Rawson and Quynh-Mai Nguyen, that she is ready to slow down. Though her tenacity and will might prevent her from an actual retirement, now is the time to recognize Barbara Goldstein in the city she has finally been able to call home. Her recognition by the City of San Jose would be timely, not only because she is near retirement but because her San Jose community and national colleagues consider her a mentor, an adviser, a leader, an advocate, a changemaker, and a woman who demands social change through the public art lens. As a strong advocate for artists, she believes “that when people engage in the arts, communities grow and thrive. Artists are natural connectors and community builders who can help define the look and feel of cities and towns. My job is to find ways to connect artists and communities.”