For Colombian-born, Fort Lauderdale resident and artist Jose Herazo-Osorio, his new AEI trajectory landed him across the Atlantic, in the 2011 Biennale in Italy. As one of the 150 artists selected from a pool of 1,500 candidates, he knew he had hit a new sphere. This he credits directly to AEI. “I gathered from the program that art is a spiritual manifestation, as well as a business endeavor,” he says.  He went on to win Third Prize for painting in the 2011 Anglo-Italian Academy of Art, Museo D’Arte di Chianciano Terme, Italy - Biennale 2011.

Contemporary public art is a wide-ranging art form encompassing both temporary and permanent art forms. Artworks are typically developed as part of a larger construction or development project and administered through a Local Arts Agency. There are more than 350 public art programs across the United States both publicly and privately funded.

Why Public Art?

Public art creates livable communities which attract people to live and work

 Public art is an integral component of a successful place. But what creates a successful place?  

Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

That is the first line on the first page of author David Raterman's first emergency relief thriller, The River Panj.  He observes, "Throughout literature, there have been Russian-themed thrillers, but we never had a thriller set in Afghanistan and neighboring Tajikistan on 9/11."  There were only about 100 Americans in Afghanistan on 9/11. Most of them were relief workers.

The book is a jarring account of third-world countries in turmoil, of black market politics, frenetic kidnappings and horrendous drug running. It is an exciting page-turner that pits American emergency relief workers against murderous terrorists.