PUBLIC ART & PUBLIC SPACE PROGRAMME: LEARNING, BUT DOING!

This paper explores possibilities for linking experiential urban design education with placemaking as an approach to public space improvement in the context of post-socialist countries. It does so by analysing educational, spatial and social rewards and challenges of doing placemaking through public art, derived from experiences of the urban design educational programme Public Art & Public Space (PaPs) at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. The research is based on two experimental projects, "Step to the River" and "Belgrade Boat Carnival", and evaluates their short-term and long-term placemaking effects in the Sava riverfront area in relation to the main goal of the project to produce positive change in space and community through experiential urban design education that uses participatory public art projects as a tool for placemaking.