---
title: "Sculpture"
description: "Three-dimensional artwork (carved, cast, welded, assembled, or built), the oldest and still the most common form of public art."
glossary: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary"
source: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/sculpture"
---

# Sculpture

> Three-dimensional artwork (carved, cast, welded, assembled, or built), the oldest and still the most common form of public art.

Glossary: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary  
Source: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/sculpture

The word now stretches far past bronze and stone: light works, sound pieces,
inflatables, and digital fabrication all get commissioned under "sculpture."
What hasn't changed is that material choices drive lifetime cost. Bronze and
granite age gracefully on a schedule of washing and waxing; painted steel
needs repaint cycles; mixed-media and electronic works need a plan for
component failure written before the ribbon is cut.

People often ask how a sculpture differs from a statue: every statue is a
sculpture, but a sculpture is only a statue when it's a representational
figure, a person or an animal. Abstract work is sculpture, never statuary.

Related terms: [Statue](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/statue), [Installation art](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/installation-art), [Kinetic sculpture](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/kinetic-sculpture), [Relief](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/relief)

## Mentioned in

- [From Open Data to a Living Guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/from-open-data-to-a-living-guide)
- [What It Costs to Run a Public Art Guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/what-it-costs-to-run-a-public-art-guide)
- [How to Evaluate Public Art Mapping Software](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-evaluate-public-art-mapping-software)
- [Ten Ideas for Your Next Public Art Tour](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/ten-ideas-for-your-next-public-art-tour)
- [What Happens When Public Art Goes Away](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/what-happens-when-public-art-goes-away)
- [Where Is It, Actually? Pinning Public Art on a Map](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/where-is-it-actually-pinning-public-art-on-a-map)
- [How to Photograph Public Art for Documentation](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-photograph-public-art-for-documentation)
- [How to Document Public Art When You Don't Know the Artist](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-document-public-art-when-you-don-t-know-the-artist)
- [How to Inventory a Public Art Collection](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-inventory-a-public-art-collection)
- [Why the Map Comes First](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/why-a-map-first-guide)
- [Introducing Civic Collection](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/introducing-civic-collection)
- [Condition report form](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/condition-report-form)
- [Public art inventory field checklist](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/public-art-inventory-field-checklist)
- [RFP language for procuring a public art guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/rfp-language-for-procuring-a-public-art-guide)