What is the importance of arts and culture in our society? What reasons are there to incorporate this into our business and city plans? What steps can we take to make that happen?
This forum will be led by Jack Becker and is designed for anyone interested in public art, cultural development strategies, and regional planning. We especially welcome city/county planners, developers, librarians, artists, architects, designers, parks and trails leaders, tourism boosters, event planners and others. This event is cohosted by the Silver Bay Public Library.

Jack Becker has been embedded in the field of contemporary public art for 45 years—as an artist, educator, producer, curator, writer, publisher and arts administrator. Best known as the founder of Forecast Public Art, based in Minnesota, Becker also founded Public Art Review, an international magazine devoted to contemporary public art. He was born in St. Louis, where he studied theater and visual arts with a focus on collaboration, experimentation and interactive installations. He also studied in Baltimore; Croydon (England); and Minneapolis, where he graduated in 1976 from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

In the 1980s Jack served as the first Art in Public Places coordinator for the City of Minneapolis, Arts Development Manager for the City of St. Paul and instructor at the College of Associated Arts in St. Paul. He received the 2007 Award of Excellence from Americans for the Arts for his contribution to the public art field and the 2014 Public Art Dialogue Lifetime Achievement Award, a program of the College Art Association. In 2016, he received the Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. Becker currently serves on committees for the US Department of Arts and Culture, the Institute for Public Art and the Public Art Exchange.