Mission:
The Center for Public Art and Space supports the advancement of discourse and creative research on public and site-responsive art. CPAS serves as an incubator, think tank, and mentorship hub for critical interaction with spaces and publics through:
As of fall 2026, CPAS is under the leadership of Faculty Co-Directors Michelle Lopez and Kaitlin Pomerantz, who aim to establish the Center as a bridge between Penn and the public realm, promoting exchange, resource sharing, and inquiry into the function and definition of public art today.
CPAS was founded in 2019 by Ken Lum, Paul Farber and Kristen Giannantonio. The Center first served as a hub for Monument Lab, an acclaimed independent public art, history and design studio.
About the Co-Directors:
Michelle Lopez is a multi-disciplinary artist, working in sculpture, installation, and sound. Lopez’ work activates architectural space through the suspension and gravity of churning cultural debris in such projects as: a 2020 installation, Ballast & Barricades, at ICA Philadelphia, and a performance and video installation PANDEMONIUM in 2025 at the Franklin Institute Fels Planetarium. At Penn, Lopez is an Associate Professor in the MFA Fine Arts Program at The Weitzman School of Design and leads the Sculpture Division. She has worked on large-scale public art commissions and is interested in the ways art can expand our perception of the landscape and the built environment. At CPAS, Lopez hopes to re-imagine public art and space in the context of our current societal conditions with the Penn community through forums and other programming at the center.
Kaitlin Pomerantz is an artist and educator whose work addresses place-specific social and ecological histories and urgencies through public installation, community collaborations, and material process. At Penn, Pomerantz serves as a Lecturer in Fine Arts and Visual Studies, where she teaches the course Matters: Art and Design Material Ecologies, designed with support from a Sachs Arts Innovation grant. Inspired by relationships with Monument Lab, Land Arts of the American West, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, RAIR Philly, and other site-focused organizations, Pomerantz is committed to supporting creative work that shapes and is shaped by local conditions. At CPAS, Pomerantz looks forward to building connections between the Penn community and public art and place-based initiatives across Philadelphia.
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