2.1 The Intention (vision)
Brighton & Hove is a city with a long history of creativity. The council understands the integral and valuable role which arts and culture plays in making the city a prosperous, healthy and attractive place.
Brighton & Hove has developed its collection of public art over a long period of time, including memorials and statues, and it consists of a range of scales, materials and subject matter.
Some more prominent and appreciated than others, such as:
- Afloat (the Donut)
- Kiss Wall
- Passacaglia and the stature of Steve Ovett on the seafront
- the Aids memorial in New Steine
- Hove Plinth and street art in North Laine
New commissions will build on this legacy and expand this collection.
There is an urgency to tackle the impact of embodied carbon and adopt circular construction techniques both for development and culturally in the way that artists and arts organisations work. Artists, makers, fabricators, production staff and suppliers are all part of a team whose shared purpose is to realise creative ideas sustainably, and address the circular economy:
- Do more with less
- Use more reused components and recycled materials
- If it has to be new, think where it comes from
- Reduce harmful chemicals
- Reduce travel
- Reduce deliveries
- Make sure everything gets used again
Brighton & Hove can be the city to lead on actively engaging with the major issues of our time – Climate Emergency, social inequity and tackling racism.
Become UK’s leading city for beautiful sustainable public art & public realm, with wellbeing and inclusivity at the heart. Brighton & Hove can become known for its sustainable public art.
Consultation with residents of Brighton & Hove identified the importance of starting from the belief that Brighton & Hove is a city that is a place of creative neighbourhoods where cultural interventions should be planned with the community to define the city’s identity.
2.2 Defining Contemporary Public Art
The term ‘public art’ is used to define a broad programme of art including permanent and temporary installations and artworks and reflects the changing ways artists and artworks engage with the life of the city, its communities and visitors.
Public art by its nature is located within the public realm – places and spaces that are freely accessible to everyone – and it often responds to the very location in which it is sited.
There is no fixed definition, form or way of creating public art. It can be collaborative, co-produced or co-curated or solely artist-led. It can create connections between people, places and ideas. Or it can be an artist’s individual response to the site or context or an issue.
Public art can be a small quiet artwork or encounter, or a mass city-wide spectacle, it might be there one day and gone the next, but live on in the collective memory.
Public art might be interactive or an architectural or landscape intervention, digital art, a soundscape, a lightwork, street furniture or sculpture or a myriad of other forms.
Public art can surprise, delight, challenge and provoke reactions or stimulate debate, it might be humorous, subtle or contentious. It might change people’s perceptions or reveal something hidden or neglected, or be a permanent reminder to celebrate or acknowledge an individual, group or moment as a memorial or monument.
Case Study: On the Shore
Ackroyd & Harvey, On the Shore, Tate Modern and Thames, London. 2021. Photo credit: © Bridget Sawyers.
Ackroyd & Harvey collaborated with the poet, novelist and activist Ben Okri to address the climate and ecological emergency in a large-scale performative work in two acts.
Act 1: over 9 days, a 16 x 4m banner grew in the Turbine Hall with a text written by Okri stencilled into the seedling grass. Equivalent to a photogram, his words were revealed in bright yellow as the letters were removed. On Friday June 25, a cellist played, and eighteen performers congregated to roll and remove the grass banner from the Tate to the Thames.
Act 2: To the call of the trumpet, and led by a dancer, the performers processed to the embankment. Lowering the banner over the railings, a crew awaited to secure the grass to a cork floatation raft. At 11am, to the sound of St Paul’s bells, the banner was lifted by the waves and floated on the river.
More information about On the Shore.
Whatever its form, the council advocates that public art should be unique, inspiring and site-specific: relate to the context or use of a particular site or location within the public realm.
The rationales for the artwork include the following:
Site specific
Topotek 1, Superflex, BIG, Superkilen, Copenhagen. 2012. Photo credit: © Iwan Baan
More information on Superkilen.
Katie Paterson, Future Library, 2014 to 2114. Commissioned and produced by Bjørvika Utvikling, and managed by the Future Library Trust. Supported by the City of Oslo, Agency for Cultural Affairs and Agency for Urban Environment. Photo credit: © Bjørvika Utvikling by Kristin von Hirsch
Designed specifically for, and in response to, a particular site. The artworks respond to the site through scale, material, form and concept. A meaningful relationship with the context makes for more nuanced and resonant artworks which will have a greater impact and longevity.
More information on Future Library.
Interpretative
Mark Dion, The Mobile Gull Appreciation Unit, Folkestone. 2008. Park. Photo credit: © Creative Folkstone.
Where the primary purpose is to describe, educate and comment on issues, events or situations. These may be functional, decorative, iconic and site-specific. Examples include signage, sculpture, seating, landscaping, murals and text-based work.
More information on The Mobile Gull Appreciation Unit.
Commemorative
The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display in Washington, DC on the National Mall, 1989, Photo credit: © Marcel Miranda/National AIDS Memorial.
More information on The AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Jane Fordham and David Parfitt, Shoreham Toll Bridge, Shoreham. 2019.
The artwork is a tribute to the eleven people who died when a Hawker Hunter jet crashed on to the A27 during an air display at Shoreham Airport in 2015. Eleven steel arches commemorate each man with words, motifs, text and forms that have been identified in consultation with the relatives. The arches have been installed on one side of the bridge across the river Adur, next to a bench which has been designed to provide moments of tranquillity for visitors.
Where the primary purpose is to acknowledge and recall an event, activity, or person important to the local community and its visitors. Commemorative artworks may be sculptures, murals, pavement details and gardens.
Temporary
Where the work is not intended to be permanent. This might be as part of an event, festival, engagement project, or testing a concept prior to making permanent. An artwork or event may be momentary or remain for a fixed time. Wide-ranging outcomes are possible and include performance, garden planting, text, installation or intervention, site hoarding artworks, and multi-media.
2.3 Working with Artists
Protecting the Professional Status of Artists
Whether artists are being commissioned by community groups, the development sector or departments within the council, appropriate fees and conditions need to be provided for artists. Arts Council England provide recommendation on appropriate fees for artists and those who work in the creative industries in recognition of their professional status, skills and experience. It urges all the parties to consider National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage and further refers them to the a-n The Artists Information Company (see: Appendix D) who publish suggested annual fee scales.
Where artists are proving their time and expertise, for example as members of a selection panel or steering group, they should be paid.
2.4 Potential Roles of Artists
Artists in Design Team
One of the most effective ways an artist can contribute to a construction or public realm project is to be employed as a member of the design team from the outset.
Artists can contribute a fresh visual perspective to development schemes, can add conceptual and design skills to the collaborative process, particularly at the initial design and concept stage. The success of this approach is dependent on the artist being involved as early as possible in the design process, and permitted the opportunity to inspire and work collaboratively with the other professionals involved. The design team or may have a facilitation or technical advisory role collaborating with the artist through design development, fabrication and installation.
Lead Artists
A variation on the Artist in Design Team approach is the role of a Lead Artist within the project steering group. Again, for this approach to be successful the Lead Artist should be appointed at an early stage in the development. The Lead Artist’s role will be to oversee the public art element of the project and integrate this into development, ensuring the creative conceptual framework is adhered to and to contribute ideas on where artworks or projects can be integrated within the development. They should not be expected to become involved with the day-to-day management of the wider development or other artists’ commissions, however they may be commissioned to create their own work for the project.
This role differs from that of an independent public art consultant who generally deals with project administration but does not directly input into the creative process, other than curatorially when developing a strategy or commissioning the artists.
Artist in Residence
The principle involves placing an artist, possibly on a residential basis, within or near to the community where the public artwork, new public space or development will be created. Artists are able to connect with the community, assisting the conceptual development of the work and ensuring site/project specificity. This approach is also useful in the process of raising local awareness, participation and ownership of the resulting artwork.
Residencies can be structured with either specific prescriptive briefs (where an area of work and likely outcomes are specified) or open briefs (non-prescriptive) that allow the artist to undertake research and make decisions about how the artwork could be realised. It is recommended that the artist has access to a support representative or steering group that is locally based to avoid the artist feeling isolated within the placed community, and to help resolve any issues that may arise.
Artists as Designers
Artists and craftspeople are not only makers but designers of objects and can develop unique features within new schemes. Examples of this approach can be found throughout the UK and include street furniture, lighting and internal fixtures.
In this scenario the artist produces the detailed design with fabrication often being handled by a manufacturing company.
Artists as Designers and Makers
The more standard approach involves artists and craftspeople producing items personally or with sub-contractors. The artist will be responsible for the detail design stages, production, delivery and often installation working with the commissioner or sub-contractors. This approach will require close liaison between the artist and project / design team to ensure schedules are successfully adhered to.
Artists as Educators
Many artists and makers have professional experience in the field of education and outreach. Artists can be commissioned to work within communities affected by new developments – either to build community ownership of the new public space or to research local cultural heritage which may inform the design of, or features within, a new development. Artist-led workshops or activities with schools or community groups can inform or lead to creation of temporary artworks. These artists may be the same or in addition to those artists commissioned to make the artworks.
Artists as Facilitators
Arts and cultural organisations may through their education or community outreach activities provide services as facilitators, either working independently or potentially supporting another artist. Artists can also be brought in as facilitators to bridge ideas developed by communities as co-creation.
Case study: 2Up 2Down / Homebaked
Jeanne van Heeswijk, 2Up 2Down / Homebaked, Liverpool. 2010. Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial. Photo: © Roger Sinek.
Jeanne van Heeswijk worked with people from Anfield and Breckfield over 2.5 years to rethink the future of their neighbourhood. 2Up 2 Architects URBED and other design specialists worked with the community to re-model a block of empty property including the former Mitchell’s Bakery and adjacent terraced houses. Taking the whole community as their ‘client’, they have designed an affordable housing scheme, bakery shop and kitchen, meeting and project spaces, with the needs of users in mind.
2.5 Community Involvement
The council encourages community involvement in the development of public art wherever possible. The nature of such involvement will and should vary from site to site, commission to commission. Working directly with existing locally based community and arts organisations to facilitate or deliver this will greatly increase the success of the project and benefit to all.
Case study: Newham Trackside Wall
Meet and Greet, Shipman Youth Centre, 2017. Commissioned by Crossrail, curated by UP Projects. Photo credit: © Benedict Johnson.
Pub Quiz, The Henley Arms. Commissioned by Crossrail. curated by UP Projects. Photo credit: © Benedict Johnson.
This major new public artwork by Sonia Boyce, commissioned by Crossrail, and curated by UP Projects for the Trackside wall that flanks the new Elizabeth Line. At over a mile long, the artwork will be one of the longest ever commissioned in the UK, running through Custom House, Silvertown and North Woolwich in Newham, east London.
Since summer 2016 Crossrail and a steering panel of community representatives, project architects and experts in contemporary public art on commissioning this artwork by Sonia Boyce. Local residents have contributed to the artist selection process and, through a series of over 25 workshops and events led by the artist throughout the three neighbourhoods, have also contributed to the development of the final artwork.
Over 300 stories have been collected that highlight individual memories and the people and events that have shaped Newham. These stories have been woven into the design of the final artwork.
More information on the Newham Trackside Wall project.
Consulting the Community
Consulting the community prior to any new development or artwork can be a very positive undertaking. The process can unlock relevant local information and engage the very people who will be living with the resulting work or project, thus encouraging a real sense of community ownership.
Commissioners may connect with the community in a range of ways to various ends:
- Public consultation processes, where members of the public or end users are invited to discuss the concept of the art and have a direct input of ideas
- Participation in outreach programmes, working with artists to either inform the work or have a direct role in the design and creation of the project
- Community representation on the selection panel
- Exhibition based consultation where designs (preliminary or final) are displayed in a public place, as a means of informing and engaging the community
Any requirement for community consultation should be identified within the initial brief. Artists may undertake this aspect of the commission directly or choose to sub-contract this element to another artist with expertise in this field.
Co-production
Co-production entails the wider vision inclusive of relationship development with other organisations, bringing together diverse players, co-financing. Co-production methodology tends to be more common in developing creative community projects as opposed to permanent artworks. The benefits of this approach to all parties can be considerable and more long-lasting. This approach may not work with funding applications if the funder cannot be flexible on the outcomes, criteria, timescales and desire for innovation.
Case Study: Speak to the Earth and It Will Tell You
Jeremy Deller, Speak To The Earth and It Will Tell You, 2007-17. Event to present the garden diaries to gardeners. Photo: © Jeremy Deller. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow.
Jeremy Deller, Speak To The Earth and It Would Tell You, 2007-17, Image © Skulptur Projekte 2017, Photo: © Henning Rogge. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow
"This is a long-term project with the Klein Gardens in the city of Münster. There are about 80 regulated Klein Garden societies in Münster. The members are very proud of the gardens – part allotments, part leisure gardens, with club houses in each for socialising and parties. They keep them beautifully. When I was asked to participate in Skulptur Projekte Münster (which convenes every ten years), I came up with the idea of asking the gardeners to keep nature diaries, which could be exhibited at the next Projekte. Some people write poems in the diaries, some get children to make drawings, others cut out things out from newspapers. The project is a microcosm of the gardeners' interaction with nature and, of course, with one another." Jeremy Deller.
More information on Speak To The Earth.
Co-curating / Co-design / Co-creation
Co-curating is the practice of involving people/organisations in the collaborative process leading to making of an artwork, exhibitions, educational resources, websites, tours, events, festivals. They are directly involved in the detail of the project, devising the concepts, themes and the selection of the artist.
For this approach to be successful there needs to be very clearly articulated expectations of all parties and clear communication about roles and responsibilities, budgets, mutual respect and a commitment to listen to the participants and community. This requires a certain type of artist to be happy to let the participants lead, and potentially act as more of a facilitator in the process and with a limited authorship. One of the greatest challenges of co-creation is establishing and maintaining the relationships developed with the participants, as these take time to develop and nurture. This can be complex over the long timescale of many projects.
Case study: The Mobile Ploposal Machine
Craig Barrowman, The Mobile Ploposal Machine, Aberdeen, Scotland. 2019. Commissioned for Look Again Festival. Photos: Grant Anderson and Sean Steen.
The Mobile Ploposal Machine roamed Aberdeen’s streets looking for people to generate ideas for spectacular new works of public art. Using the self-contained, solar-powered, pop-up creative workshop hidden within the giant head of the city’s pre-eminent architect, Archibald Simpson, people of all ages were helped to create scale models of their ideas from modelling clay. These models were photographed and digitally manipulated to create posters which visualised the sculptures in various locations around the city.
Some best practice for socially engaged practice
- Plan your project with a long lead-in time, talk to locally embedded organisations and voluntary or resident groups well in advance of the start, ideally before the project plan is written and any funding applications submitted
- Establish what the people living in the community actually want / need so that a project builds on their vision. They will not want your ideas landed on them
- If working in partnership with a local organisation or a voluntary group is proposed then resources for them need to be allowed for in the budget or funding application. The needs may vary for different groups but might include: staff time, room hire, admin support, access provision, interpreters (BSL or other) fees and expenses for participation – their requirements should be clarified and agreed in advance
- If working alongside a community, it is vital to credit the organisations and groups throughout your media releases, press interviews and funders’ reports
- For young people and vulnerable adults always ensure that you have photo permission or parental / guardian agreement forms for participation
- Consider the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) when collating and storing data, including any personal information such as names and contact information
Case study: Across and In-Between
Helen Sloan SMPSP from Across and In-Between by Suzanne Lacy. A 14-18 NOW and Belfast International Arts Festival co-commission.
Across and in Between was co-created with communities from both sides of the border in Pettigo, Tullyhommon, Cuilcagh Mountain, Castle Saunderson, Magheraveely and Newtownbutler. After almost 100 years since the partition of Ireland, it explored the profound impact the border has on the lives of people living there during a time of intense international focus around Brexit.
More information on Across and In-Between
Case study: I'm blue, you're yellow
Rebecca Chesney, I'm blue, you're yellow, Everton Park, Liverpool. 2012 (ongoing). Photo credit: © Rebecca Chesney
The commission resulted from the artist’s research during a residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2010/11 where she proposed the creation of habitat to help encourage and support bees and other insects. The Everton Park site was identified as being a suitable location, commissioned by Landlife, with support from the National Wildflower Centre, Liverpool City Council, Friends of Everton Park, the Liverpool Biennial and Arts Council England.
One acre is made entirely of blue flowering species, the other acre is entirely of yellow flowering species. Each acre is square in shape. Creating a striking visual impact on the landscape, the meadows provide a rich source of food for many different species such as:
- bees
- butterflies
- moths
- ants
- beetles
which in turn attracts birds and bats to the site.
More information on I'm Blue, you're yellow.