# Civic Collection > Put every mural, sculpture, and installation in your city into a beautiful, map-first guide people actually use. Civic Collection is the publishing platform for public art collections, built by Built by Field. Key facts: - What it is: an interactive, map-first public guide to a city's public art, backed by museum-grade collections management (records modeled on CDWA/CCO, SPECTRUM, and the Getty vocabularies), moderated community contributions, and program reporting. - Who it's for: cities and arts councils, tourism boards and destinations, festivals, BIAs and arts groups, and campuses. - Proof: the Calgary Public Art Guide. Calgary Arts Development runs the city's mixed collection on it, reading City of Calgary open data. Case study: https://www.civiccollection.com/case-studies/calgary-public-art-guide/ - How it works: onboarding is a done-for-you migration (spreadsheets, PDFs, and open datasets become structured records), then a subscription. Built by Field hosts, maintains, and improves the guide after launch. Pricing is scoped per collection; book a demo. - Your data stays yours: every record exports in full, at any time. - Can other cities or organizations get a guide like this? Yes. Book a demo at https://www.civiccollection.com/demo/ or email hey@civiccollection.com. - Built and operated by Built by Field (https://www.builtbyfield.com). ## Product - [Interactive map](https://www.civiccollection.com/interactive-map/): Public art map software: every artwork with its photos, story, and artist credit, plus self-guided tours with turn-by-turn navigation, in any browser. - [Collections management](https://www.civiccollection.com/collections-management/): Public art collection management software: museum-grade records, condition assessments, and open-data sync behind your public guide. Full export, any time. - [Community contributions](https://www.civiccollection.com/community-contributions/): Public art community engagement, moderated: photo and story submissions, suggested edits, and proposed works land in a queue your team approves first. - [Analytics & reporting](https://www.civiccollection.com/analytics-reporting/): Public art program reporting: care and condition posture, community contribution activity, and engagement from your guide. Numbers you can take to council. ## Use cases - [Cities & arts councils](https://www.civiccollection.com/for/cities/): A map-first guide for city public art programs and arts authorities: every work found, a catalog kept current, reporting for council. Live in Calgary. - [Tourism & destination](https://www.civiccollection.com/for/tourism/): Turn your city’s public art into self-guided itineraries visitors keep: map-first tours with turn-by-turn navigation, in any browser. Live in Calgary. - [Festivals, BIAs & arts groups](https://www.civiccollection.com/for/festivals/): Give your murals a permanent, map-first home that outlasts the season: every work mapped and credited, with moderated community contributions. Live in Calgary. - [Campuses](https://www.civiccollection.com/for/campuses/): Turn a scattered campus collection into a map-first guide: wayfinding, a lasting archive, and donor visibility on museum-grade records. Live in Calgary. ## Case studies - [Calgary Public Art Guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/case-studies/calgary-public-art-guide/): Calgary Arts Development put the city’s public art into one map-first guide, with self-guided tours and artworks in every city ward. Live guide: https://www.calgarypublicartguide.com ## Blog - [What It Costs to Run a Public Art Guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/what-it-costs-to-run-a-public-art-guide/) (2026-07-29): Every conversation about a public art guide reaches the budget question, and it deserves a straight answer. We don't publish a price list, and this essay explains what would be on it if we could: a scoped onboarding priced by the state of your records, a subscription that keeps the guide running for years, and the places programs usually find the money. - [How to Evaluate Public Art Mapping Software](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-evaluate-public-art-mapping-software/) (2026-07-22): Most programs never run a formal procurement for deciding on a public art mapping software. Here's what to compare, some details on cost, and questions you should ask yourself before you decide. - [Ten Ideas for Your Next Public Art Tour](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/ten-ideas-for-your-next-public-art-tour/) (2026-07-19): The hard part of a public art tour isn't the walking, it's finding a handful of works that belong together. Here are ten ideas for a public art tour you can set up, from a twenty-minute lunch loop to a full afternoon on a bike path. - [What Happens When Public Art Goes Away](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/what-happens-when-public-art-goes-away/) (2026-07-16): While an artwork is standing, you can photograph it, measure it, and assess its condition when you choose. Once it's gone, you have only what somebody wrote down. Plenty of public art was never meant to stay, so treat the location in your art catalog as something changeable, even if it's in a "permanent" location. - [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/) (2026-07-13): Six decimal places on a coordinate describes eleven centimeters of detail about a measurement your phone can only make to within five meters. Precision was the part that was already solved. What actually stops someone finding an artwork is that it sits indoors, the gate is locked on weekends, or the piece moved last spring. Here is what to capture, which point on the artwork to pin, and why access hours belong in the record. - [How to Photograph Public Art for Documentation](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-photograph-public-art-for-documentation/) (2026-07-11): In a public art guide, an artwork's photos pull a lot of weight. You'll want a full-page hero, a map thumbnail, a representation of the art piece's condition, and—if available—a plaque photo. Here is what to shoot while photographing public art. - [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/) (2026-07-08): A photo, a pin, a measurement, and the date you stood there make a real record, even without an artist's name or the date of installation. Here's why incomplete documentation beats none at all. - [How to Inventory a Public Art Collection](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-inventory-a-public-art-collection/) (2026-07-06): Most programs run on a spreadsheet that drifts out of date over time. Here's a practical way to turn what you have into a real catalog, one record at a time. - [Why the Map Comes First](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/why-a-map-first-guide/) (2026-07-03): Cities invest in public art, but struggle to help people find it. Here's the case for opening the guide directly to a map, and what your team can learn from seeing the whole collection in context. - [Introducing Civic Collection](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/introducing-civic-collection/) (2026-07-01): We've been building map-first public art guides for a while, but we've now put a name to it: Civic Collection. Here's an overview of what an art guide includes, what we learned from building the Calgary Public Art Guide with Calgary Arts Development, and why it's worth it for your city to organize your public art records. ## Toolkit - [Public art inventory field checklist](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/public-art-inventory-field-checklist/): Every field a public art record should capture, from accession number to condition rating, adapted from museum standards for civic collections. - [RFP language for procuring a public art guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/rfp-language-for-procuring-a-public-art-guide/): Copy-ready requirements language for procuring a map-first public art guide: scope, catalog standards, data ownership, accessibility, and operations. ## Glossary - [Public art glossary](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/): 58 public art terms, each with a short, self-contained definition. ## Company - [About](https://www.civiccollection.com/about/): Who builds and operates Civic Collection, and why. - [Contact](https://www.civiccollection.com/contact/): hey@civiccollection.com - [Book a demo](https://www.civiccollection.com/demo/): A walkthrough of the guide and catalog with the team.