Public art

Public art commissions

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Public artworks

Public art has played an important role in the visual make-up of Brighton & Hove since the first commission in 1992. Our public art commissions build artists' skills and vision into the process of creating new spaces and regenerating old ones.

The artworks include sculpture, photography, environmental land works, lighting, seating, street furniture and work built within larger architectural developments and buildings. All the artworks are site-specific and many projects include community involvement.

Using innovation and experimentation these works celebrate Brighton & Hove's communities and landscapes. They increase the use of open spaces and create important environments for residents and visitors, insuring a cultural legacy for the future.

You can also get information on visiting the works from our public art trail guides and view all the public art pieces on a Google map.

Sculpture
 

• Afloat
• AIDS Memorial Sculpture
• Cut and Sediment
• Kiss Wall
• Passacaglia
• Pollen Grain
• Rocket
• Series of Carved Oak Sculptures
• Sylvana Sculptures
• Twins

Gates and Railings
 

• Airfix Gate
• Aldi Sculptural Railings
• Avalon Gate
• Black Lion Street Railings
• Patching Lodge Gates and Railings
• Taj Gates
• Zipgates

 Light
 

• Brighton Station Underpass Lighting
• The Cones
• Drift
• Hove Station Footbridge
• The Kidney Unit
• Viaduct Lighting
• The Wave

Participatory
 

• Pankhurst Photography Project
• Phoenix Rise
• Rest Awhile On Your Journey
• Urban Art Wall
• White Horses
• Write Around Air Street

Other works

2015

In January 2015 Spacemakers, who describe themselves as a utopian regeneration agency based in Brighton won the £70,000 section 106-funded public art commission to enhance the London Road regeneration area. Their Brighton School proposal sought to provide an opportunity for talented graduates to remain working in their subject field.  

Spacemaker’s Brighton School proposal was conceived by Matt Weston, Tom James and Andy Felton. 

The public art commissioning panel included: Paul Campbell, BHCC Parks department; Donna Close, BHCC Head of Arts; Branwen Lorigan, Project Manager for the EU Recreate project; Elspeth Broady, a Friends of Ditchling Rise representative; Rev. Phillip Wells, Chair of the London Road Area LAT; Jim Mayor, BHCC Project Manager, Laura Coleman, Founder & Co Director of ONCA gallery.

The school would provide the selected graduates six months of studio space so that they could remain in Brighton, using the space to continue with their own practice and take part in the Brighton School Regeneration public art project. The students were employed by the Brighton School and given six months of intensive support and programming, with the help of external tutors and organisations including Muf, Air, Kathrin Bohm and Eastside Projects. The school produced a ‘strange, subtle and beautiful work of public art in the form of the first urban stone circle in England, and probably the world.’[1]

From sixty University of Brighton applicants, five graduates were chosen. They were Alex Nunn (filmmaker), Isabella Poadpade (painter), Malcom Bradly (sculptor), Martina Mina and Roz Wells (architects).

These five graduates formulated the concept of The London Road Stone Circle. The inspiration for the Stone Circle came from the group’s discovery of fifty York paving stones, which had been discarded for regeneration outside St Peter’s Church. Graduate Isabella Poadpadec produced a drawing that incorporated the York stones. Her idea was to develop a new ‘myth’ for the area, combining something old and something new.

From this point the graduates had a focus: the school would lay the stones in a new circle which would be as wide as the road is long, passing through public and private space.

• One of the graduates responded to the project with a film which you can view online
• For further information please visit the Spacemakers website

[1] Matt Weston, Director at Spacemakers.

Text written by Lucy Kearney University of Brighton placement student.

• Library Artworks
• New England Quarter Artworks
• Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital Artworks
• Schools projects
• Glass - Homeostasis
• Land Art - Fingermaze
• Temporary Artworks including; 'Crowd', 'In our Hands' and 'I have great desire, My desire is great'

Public art trails

These trails invite you to explore public artworks in and around Brighton & Hove.  Click on the trail link for a map, directions and images of the artworks you will visit. Bus numbers are included in the trail directions but for more information on getting around the city visit: www.journeyon.co.uk.

Public Art Trail 1: Brighton Town Centre
This trail begins at Brighton train station and concentrates on the public art in the city centre and along the seafront.

Public Art Trail 2: Brighton Town Centre Continued
This trail is designed to follow on from Public Art Tail 1, in to the east of Brighton.

Public Art Trail 3: The Hove Experience
This trail is based in Hove and is aimed at those wishing to go on a longer walk, for experienced road cyclists and those using the bus services.

Public Art Trail 4: After Dark
This trail is designed for night time explorers and gives you chance to fully appreciate some of the artworks in the city that use light and illumination.

Keep up to date with public art in Brighton & Hove

Use our Google maps RSS feed for the Public Art Trail to stay informed when new trail pieces are added.