Positivity in Public Art
A Conversation Between Design Museum of Chicago + You Are Beautiful

With a combined 30 years of experience in creating high quality public artworks across a variety of surfaces, communities, and audiences, the Design Museum of Chicago and You Are Beautiful are partnering for a discussion at NeoCon on the power of positivity in public art. Cities gain enormous economic, cultural, and social value through a vibrant public art program. Chicago's collection of world-class public artworks reflect its varied cultures, communities, and ideologies, and remind of us our shared values. When designing new artworks for public spaces, artists are responsible for considering participation, community building, and education as part of the design process. From there, positive messaging in public artwork has the capacity to impact our mental health, self worth, and general well being.

Tanner Woodford
Founder & Executive Director, Design Museum of Chicago

Tanner Woodford is founder and executive director of the Design Museum of Chicago. As an artist, he paints optimistic, typographic, and larger-than-life murals. His work has appeared at the WNDR Museum, Soho House Chicago, and is permanently installed at Weber Shandwick in the John Hancock Building. In 2020, Tanner was appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to the City of Chicago’s Cultural Advisory Council. As a designer, educator, and entrepreneur, he has taught, lectured, and led workshops on design issues, social change, and design history in classrooms and at conferences.

Matthew Hoffman
Founder, You Are Beautiful

Matthew Hoffman is a Chicago based artist & designer whose public works have been exhibited internationally. His ideas and work have been included in Good, the New York Times Magazine, and Ready Made. He has been published in books by Gestalten, Droog, and Taschen, and was featured in a segment on the Oprah network. Matthew has created large scale public installations for the City of Chicago, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, Albright Knox Gallery, as well as companies like Apple, Facebook, Zappos, & Cards Against Humanity. There are close to 30 outdoor installations currently up in the Chicagoland area.