What do we want and need from our public spaces? As the world emerges from the profound limitations imposed by the COVID-19 crisis, this reader offers a range of possibilities from the domain of art.

With contributions from twenty-five leading Australian and international artists, writers and curators including Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera, Indonesian artist collective ruangrupa, British art historian and critic Claire Bishop and Gunditjmara artist and senior knowledge custodian Vicki Couzens, Let’s Go Outside is a timely examination of creative practices in the public realm. From negotiating space in the settler–colonial context of Australia to responding to crises in the United States, Hong Kong and New Zealand, the reader’s essays, case studies, interviews and visual contributions reveal how ideas and practices associated with remembrance, public history, urban regeneration, communality, accessibility and activism are challenging and innovating art in the public domain.

Let’s Go Outside takes up questions from the successful 2019 symposium Let’s Go Outside: Making Art Public, presented by Monash University Museum of Art and Monash Art Projects (MAP), and reflects on the growing interest in making and presenting art outside of conventional gallery contexts.

Contributors: Michelle Antoinette, Alison Atkinson-Phillips, Claire Bishop, Daniel Browning, Tania Bruguera, Danny Butt, Clara Cheung, Madeleine Collie, Emily Cormack, Vicki Couzens, Sean Dockray, Mel Dodd, Felicity Fenner, Blair French, Brian Fuata, Mish Grigor, Oscar Ho Hing-kay, Jonathan Jones, Callum McGrath, Grace McQuilten, Carmen Papalia, Nikos Papastergiadis, Sam Petersen, ruangrupa, Zara Stanhope