When Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus coined the term “creative placemaking” in 2010, they pointed to a process in which “partners from public, private, nonprofit and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city or region around arts and cultural activities.” Devin Drake isn’t doing all of that, but his intricately detailed miniature models of Nashville’s actual defunct public telephones and bus stop benches use the power of art to elevate our experience with quotidian spaces. Drake makes mini monuments to the mundane, allowing us to see the workaday sights of our city through new eyes. JOE NOLAN
Best Tiny Art
Devin Drake’s A Collection of Places at The Rymer Gallery
