Art in Public Places is a Gisborne initiative to highlight visual arts. The streets and public places host a number of artworks, including those shown here: a decorated ceramic sculpture of a whale’s tooth by Seymour May; a carving of a waka prow (te tauihu), designed by Derek Lardelli and Te Aturangi Nepia Clamp and carved by Clamp and Bill Baker; ‘Read me a story grandad’, a sculpture created by Donald Paterson in 2002 and placed outside the city library; and ‘The spirit of sister cities’, a sculpture by Russell Jacques, in collaboration with Gisborne Engineering and Tairāwhiti Polytechnic engineering students, which acknowledged links with Palm Desert, California, a twin city of Gisborne.

'Voyager', a kinetic sculpture by Konstantin Dimopoulos, sited on the city's Waikanae Creek, was installed in early 2011.