PAW: Public Art Walk

Inspiration

Public art is everywhere, yet many people walk past murals, sculptures, and installations without knowing their stories or the artists behind them.

Discovering public art can be difficult because:

Information about artworks is scattered across different websites and locations.
Existing maps may show where art is located without making discovery engaging.
Visitors may not know how to plan a meaningful art-focused walking route.
People with different accessibility needs may face barriers to engaging with public art.
Local artists and culturally significant works can go unnoticed.

What it does

ArtWalk brings public art discovery, guided walking tours, and accessible storytelling into one place.

Users can explore a map of public artworks, choose a tour that matches their interests, and learn about each artwork through written descriptions or audio narration.

Instead of simply showing people where art is, ArtWalk helps them understand and experience it.

How we built it

Frontend: React, TypeScript, Vite
Styling: CSS, Tailwind CSS
Mapping: Leaflet with OpenStreetMap
Artwork Data: Municipal open-data sources and curated artwork records
Audio: Browser text-to-speech or prerecorded narration
Backend: Node.js
Data Storage: JSON for the initial prototype; a database for future expansion

Challenges we ran into

Merging two files that were worked on in separate branches.
Didn't implement as much accessibility features as we wished.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We made a working project.
Understanding APIs and using them in our project.
Learning how to use Git in a collaborative setting.
Creating a product that promotes social good.

What we learned

Git operations (e.g., push, pull, merge, commit, rebase)
Learned how to use APIs (obtaining and maintenance of API keys)
Frontend development
Leveraging AI

What's next for PAW: Public Art Walk

Additional accessibility features (e.g., implementing APIs on ramps, elevators, etc.)
Text-to-voice for the main page
More languages
AI chatbot that produces routes for you based on a theme
Public feed to share routes that can be uploaded and promote community engagement