I'm a big fan of public artwork.  But in Chicago we usually see it in the forms of sculptures and installations.  While in Moscow this summer we ran across some installations of paintings placed atop building exteriors.  They took what was a simple cinder block building and gave it a punch of beauty.  They distracted from the burglar bars, the graffiti and the worn paint.  They gave it humanity, comfort, and almost a feeling that it was a well designed interior (instead of an exterior) - all of a sudden it felt intimate and personal. But what I found most inspiring and interesting about the paintings was that none of the graffiti artists had defaced them.  The rest of the walls were well tagged, but the graffiti artists respected the painters enough to only tag the buildings and not the art. Mutual artist respect - now that's inspiring.