From bronze sculptures and giant concrete bears to illegal grafitti and dead rabbits hanging in trees: what constitutes public art is broad, and at times, controversial.

Appreciation of art is subjective and, obviously, not every style appeals to every person. However, since some public art is funded by government grants - and therefore by taxpayers' money - it gets more than its share of scrutiny.

How much money should be spent on an installation, for example? Table of Contents, a piece created by Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski, is an aluminum table in Vimy Ridge Park that's inscribed with text. It cost Winnipeggers $70,000. Was it worth it?

What about art that pushes boundaries? In 1999, local artist Diana Thorneycroft was granted $15,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts for Monstrance - an installation for which she sewed photos into rabbit carcasses hung from trees, the idea being that the photos would be revealed to viewers as the bodies decomposed.

"Winnipeg in particular, I think, has a lot of conflicting ideas of what public art should represent and where our money goes," Cryus Smith says.

Smith is a local artist who was chosen out of more than 80 applicants to participate in Muralfest 2K7 - an international mural festival that just wrapped up in Winnipeg. His mural, titled Moron/War on, is composed of 15 squares, each representing a different "war" being waged in modern-day society.

Smith is also a member of the art collective Two Six, a group responsible for the multitude of 'pre-fabs' decorating the downtown area - tiny paintings on reclaimed pieces of wood that are nailed up in unexpected places (without permission). Smith's mural is done in a similar style; simplistic and almost cartoon-like - a look that's very different from most of the other murals in Winnipeg, and one he says he chose deliberately so as not to obscure his message.

"It's accessible," Smith explains. "I'm the type of artist that can do high-realism painting... I choose not to. I'm inviting people to question their own outlook on what's a good painting, or what makes good art."

Smith says some people might avoid visiting art galleries for fear of not understanding the art contained within - pieces that, by the very fact that they're displayed in a gallery, are accepted as legitimate and held up as the standard against which other work is compared.

In contrast, public art - illegal or sanctioned - is displayed for anyone to see and interact with, regardless of personal tastes. It becomes a part of our everyday environment - inviting us to engage with it.

Erin Nuttall, Muralfest's director, says the festival's judges understood the responsibility they were given, and tried to select pieces that were not only eye-pleasing, but also edgy and thought provoking.

"We're trying to raise the bar a little bit for murals in Winnipeg," Nuttall says. "People walk by - whether they're interested or not, chances are they'll notice them."