ABSTRACT
The audience for murals includes the cultural tourists so desired by urban and regional policy-makers around the world. The association of murals with 'the people,' the collaborative methods sometimes used to create them, their locations and content all imply a communal audience, a 'public' rather than an individual viewer. Murals located inside public or municipal buildings as public art often address an imagined ideal citizenry, constructing particular visions of nationhood. The role of state patronage in the creation and management of murals is often controversial. Murals were undertaken as 'small-town promotion projects' in the USA, Canada and New Zealand in the late twentieth century. While murals do not have the same relationship to the market as more easily tradable art forms, their site-specific nature means they can be commoditized as visitor attractions through the tourism industry. Revolutionary murals are commoditized and institutionalized. The enjoyment of murals by tourists does not neutralize their political complexity for local residents and authorities.
