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The next time you want to give your dog an unusual walk, or throw a Frisbee in a huge open quad, and be inspired while you’re at it, check out the government mall between Salisbury and Wilmington just north of the Legislature building. Host to large demonstrations, over-flow soccer games for tykes, and even hot-air balloon launches, this unbroken lawn (which forms the living roof of a parking deck) is also home to probably the best piece of public art in Raleigh. The Education Wall, finished in 1992 after 4 years of work, was the first outside art purchased under the Artworks for State Buildings program and indeed sets a high bar for public art in Raleigh. Created by sculptor Vernon Pratt with the assistance of Georgann Eubanks and others, the images are sandblasted into Texas red granite and are accompanied by benches of various granite types with information and more quotes engraved thereon. When I wrote about this piece in The Independent, I was mainly paying homage to my favorite writer, Fred Chappell, whose quote dominates the image from a distance. Once you get close, the raw granite behind John Coltrane’s musical bars, the surprising tragedy that ends one of the bench stories, the Braille translation and other diverse texts, really create a powerful presence that informs the entire sterile grassland that surrounds this piece. Support for public art has always been a little sketchy in these parts, but the Education Wall seems to please all concerned. It’s a start. And this post is just a start at looking at public art in Raleigh. Old and recent controversies, roaming art wolves, Andy & Opie’s malaise - there’s a lot of fat to chew here! Now if someone could just tell me what happened to the 40 foot wooden version of Sir Walter Raleigh that got carved in North Hills Mall in the late seventies…