PUBLIC ART IN A MULTICULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE THREE SOUTHERN BORDER PROVINCES, THAILAND

Abstract

          This qualitative research aimed 1. to investigate the attitudes, perspectives, and experiences of the involved individuals or artists on public art in the three southern border provinces, 2. to examine the key factors that should be considered in the process of creating and designing public art including its impact on the three southern border provinces, and 3. to compare the results with the other multicultural contexts, such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The results were analyzed in order to apply the best practices in developing the public art creation process that is appropriate for the three southern border provinces.This research employed various methods including in-depth interviews, group interviews, case study observation and theoretical studies from documents. The research has resulted in the following conclusions: 1. Among all sample groups studied, it is consensus that their main objective of creating public art is to serve the community and society as a top priority. In the three southern border provinces, the focus is on tourism 2. The key factors that should be considered in the process of creating and designing public art and its impact on the context can be identified into two key factors. First, the process of creating public art significantly involves supporting processes. Second, it is important to learn and understand the different forms of public art existing in the past and present of the community where the art would be placed. In terms of the impact of creating public art on communities and society, the findings showed three categories of impact: positive, negative, and moderate. Firstly, the positive impact is the most common, with 72.73% of respondents of all groups of case studies in the three southern border provinces, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai indicating that public art plays an important role in attracting tourists to the community, creating economic opportunities, as well as increasing community pride. The results from this study will be useful to both academic learning and art management.