Starting in France and Belgium, over 500 participatory art works have been realized in public spaces worldwide since the early 1990s, programmatically based on François Her's “Protocol of the New Patrons”. The aim of the organization is to support citizens in their desire for an artistic work of public significance by having a mediator moderate between different interests and groups of actors. The text explores the actor worlds of the New Patrons from a cultural analytical perspective. It explores the different actors active in the projects as well as cohesive elements, controversies, fissures, and ruptures. As a central "translation moment", the text discusses the following categories: economic, cultural and social capital, spatial atmospheres, we-promises, images, words and connecting activities. Based on a broad concept of translation (Michel Callon, Bruno Latour) as well as on Pierre Bourdieu's theory on the hidden mechanisms of power, the text is understood as an analysis of an “art of controversy” that anticipates conflict as an integral part of social participation processes and makes it productive.