Profile

Janet Kagan is a founding Principal of the Percent for Art Collaborative, an interdisciplinary research and consulting group. The Collaborative creates design teams to help communities initiate and refine public art policies, programs, and projects, which establish a context for all types of public art to fully engage aesthetic sensibilities and physical environments. The Collaborative includes artists, government representatives, public art administrators, architects, writers, historians, landscape designers, and urban planners. Each member brings expertise in contemporary expressions of public art, and is committed to thoughtful discussion, strategic planning, critical discourse, and innovative program development to strengthen the field of public art, expand opportunities for communities to experience the broad reach of the artist, and for artists to create successful works of public art.

Janet serves on the boards and task forces of national and regional non-profit arts organizations; frequently participates on artist selection panels and juries; and pursues critical discourse about public art. In 2005, she was elected to the Governing Council of the Public Art Network (PAN) of Americans for the Arts, and in 2006 became its Vice Chair. Since 2002, she has served on the Board of the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission as its organizational Chair, Director of the Percent for Art program, and Director of Community Artist Residencies. On behalf of the Public Arts Commission, she initiated and managed the Public Art Contextual Plan for the Town of Chapel Hill, which integrates public art into the Town's Comprehensive Plan and land use policies.

She has more than 30 years of professional experience in communications, marketing, strategic planning, community outreach and organizing, and project management collaborating with design teams and communities, and serving as liaison among artists, clients, public agencies, elected officials, and design teams. Janet has held positions in city government, local and statewide non-profit organizations, and architectural and interpretive design firms. She holds an MBA from Simmons College School of Management and an MA in Philosophy of Art from Duke University.