Public art displays must first go through an art commission to be displayed.
An art commission statement is a formal declaration by an artist or an art gallery or museum collective concerning an exhibit or piece of art. Art commission statements usually declare an artist's intention to put together an exhibit or public art display. Municipalities create art commissions to handle the public's perception of art pieces as well as the artist's intention for the art. If a piece of art is considered indecent to the public, the artist, gallery or museum might draft an art commission statement concerning the importance of the art. Commission statements may be written in any writing style, including the APA style.
Instructions
1. Construct the statement in the general APA guidelines. Throughout your report, you must write in 12-point font, Times New Roman, and use a 5-7 space indentation for new paragraphs. The pages should have an alignment of flush left and page numbers must be placed on the top right hand corner.
2. Write the title page of your commission statement. Under APA guidelines, the title page must have a running head, which is the title of the statement in uppercase letters, in the upper left-hand corner. After the running head, you need to center and lower the main body of the title page. This includes the title of the statement, your name, your institutional affiliation and general author notes. Author notes are needed, such as contact information or who helped you in the statement process.
3. Explain the purpose of your statement in an abstract. The abstract is the second page of any APA style statement or essay and the title of this page must read "Abstract" according to the APA. The abstract summarizes the central points the author wants to make concerning the piece of art. Under APA guidelines, the abstract should only have 150 to 250 words in it.
4. State the ideas behind your piece of art. Explain to the commission the purpose of the art and what it is intended to do for the viewing audience.
5. Respond to criticism of the art. This step is mostly for statements relating to controversial art pieces. As an artist, you may defend the purpose of your art on a number of legal or constitutional grounds to counter criticism against the art. You may also personally counter any criticism by elaborating further on the piece.
6. Cite all your in-text citations. In-text citations are cited in a number of different ways. If the author or authors are part of the sentence, then you need to write the year of their publication in parenthesis after their name. If the author or authors are not part of the sentence, then the author or authors names and year of publication must be in parenthesis at the end of the sentence.
7. Cite all quotations in the statement. Under the APA guidelines, when you directly quote from someone or a document, such as Constitution or Bible, you must cite the source immediately afterward. After the quotation, you must state the author or authors, the year of the publication, and the page number or section where the quotation is from. The citation is in parenthesis immediately after the quotation.
8. Write your reference page. The reference page is the final page of your statement and it has every source you utilized in statement. The heading of the page needs to read "References" centered on the page. In alphabetical order, you need to list the sources by the author's last name. The reference should be written with the author or authors name first, then the year of publication, the source reference with italics for books or volumes, and the URL if there is a URL. If a reference cannot fit on one line, then the next line needs to be indented underneath the top line.
