Experiments in Public Art: The Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan Update

Through the Experiments in Public Art program, the City of Boulder has been embedding artists in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan Major Update, which kicked off in 2024 and will undergo adoption hearings beginning June 2026. This project has been a collaboration between the Planning and Development Services Department and the Office of Arts and Culture, a division of the Office of Cultural and Economic Development.

The comprehensive plan, updated every ten years, is the city and county’s primary long-term policy guide for the Boulder Valley. Experiments in Public Art: A Boulder Future has integrated artists into communications and community engagement for the update. Artists add value to planning processes: they can help illuminate and humanize aspects of the plan; visualize, embody and create works of art to explain complicated information; diversify and elevate the voices and perspectives that are engaged in the process; and help us celebrate Boulder’s identity now and envision where we want to be in 20 years.

Experiments in Public Art: A Boulder Future has been organized with support from consulting firm More Sky, Less Ceiling.

Experiments in Public Art: A Boulder Future series will be showing in the Canyon Gallery at the Main Library from June - July 2026. The opening reception is June 17 from 5 to 7 p.m.

• See event details

Learn more about each of the projects that were part of Experiments in Public Art: A Boulder Future. These projects will be on display in the Canyon Gallery of the Main Library during June and July.

Motus Theater engaged in several iterations of “Playback Theater” at public venues with a wide range of attendees at the beginning of the planning process. These events invited community members to share personal reflections and hopes for Boulder’s future. Then, Motus’ talented group of improv actors transformed these stories into performances using movement, music, and spoken word. The sessions were video recorded for an archival artifact. These events allowed for a new way to reflect and engage in visioning for the Comprehensive Plan, and gave participants a chance to:

• Shape Boulder’s Future: Stories and input helped guide themes and recommendations for the Comprehensive Plan.
• See Stories Come to Life: Actors interpreted submissions, offering a moving experience for both storytellers and audience members.
• Build Community: Through theater, participants explored diverse perspectives and sparked meaningful dialogue.
• Rethink Engagement: These events reimagined how local government listens to and learns from the community.

As part of the City of Boulder’s Experiments in Public Art series and the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan update, the city hired illustrator Cal Brackin to turn complex planning information into clear, engaging illustrations. His artwork helps communicate important information on the state of Boulder’s transportation, health and wellness, public safety, environmental sustainability, governance, and economic resilience.

These playful illustrations are included in a children’s book called Boulder’s Big Adventure. The book helps families learn about the city planning process through fun images and easy-to-understand descriptions. The city continues to use the illustrations in its communications and presentations.

As part of the City of Boulder’s Experiments in Public Art series, artists Becky Wareing Steele and Shannon Geis collaborated with the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan team for Boulder’s first Community Assembly. Their project, Building Connections, presented an innovative, process-based approach to community engagement through community stories and artistic interpretation.

Building Connections drew inspiration from the observations of the discussions that took place during the assembly. The artists also conducted one-on-one interviews with assembly members to gather their perspectives on the ideas explored in the assembly. These observations and conversations informed the creation of a series of small-scale, portable, mixed-media sculptures accompanied by edited audio pieces. The goal of the project was to artfully reflect the personal connections people have to place and elevate those voices within the broader context of city planning and the comprehensive plan update.

As part of the City of Boulder’s Experiments in Public Art series and the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan update, local artist Chris Carruth collaborated with the Comprehensive Plan engagement team on a project called Voicing Boulder.

This participatory project invited Boulder community members from July to October 2025 to explore their current realities while imagining possible futures, using the PhotoVoice method as a bridge between what is and what could be. PhotoVoice is an artistic and civic engagement practice in which participants photograph places, objects or scenes that reflect their lived experience and civic concerns - then pair these images with short speculative texts or audio recordings that express hopes, solutions and visions for change.

Voicing Boulder supported the Prioritizing Conversations phase of the Comprehensive Plan engagement process - a space where community voices helped shape the big ideas guiding Boulder’s future.

The Comprehensive Plan includes over 200 policies with a 20-year outlook on issues like land use, transportation, housing, climate action, and community well-being. This update focused on identifying a small number of bold, transformative “Big Ideas” that respond directly to the values and priorities of Boulder’s people.

These Big Ideas were then evaluated for potential benefits, trade-offs and long-term impacts. Through small-group conversations, facilitated by city staff and professional community organizers, residents were asked to help weigh options, consider the complexities of policymaking, and identify what’s worth prioritizing or preserving.

The goal of the Voicing Boulder project was to creatively amplify these conversations, offering a visual and emotional bridge between personal experience and public policy.

This culminating artwork will reflect the Comprehensive Plan process and provide a lasting visual expression of the community’s hopes and direction for the next two decades. The artist selected to create this mural is Andriod Jones. The title of the mural is "BOCO A GO-GO."