Abstract
This study investigates the politics of public space and social fear that work to create new scenarios for social and racial segregation in the processes of gentrification, such as privatization, fortification, and symbolism in public art in a major southern metropolitan city. The Public Art Program of Atlanta, Georgia is implementing public art projects at various sites, chosen based on being in depressed neighborhoods in the hope that it will bring new life to blighted urban areas and change the current use of space. Through an applied anthropological and multi-perspective approach, this study explores how middle and upper class residents currently regard their in-town neighborhood, surrounded by historic black universities and neighborhoods, public housing, and having a highly visible homeless population. Fortification, privatization, and residents’ response to the public art project speak profoundly to the processes of gentrification that are occurring there.
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