PASW Regional Newsletter: Autumn 2002
REGIONAL NETWORK MEETING
Art and the Environment: Collaborative Solutions - South Gloucestershire, 18th April 2002
Cllr. Tony Davis welcomed everyone to South Gloucestershire and spoke of the Council's pride in the Ring Road Scheme. This was followed by a brief welcome by Maggie Bolt and the Chair, Lee Corner, outlining the aims for the meeting. Lee then went on to introduce Trish McGrath, Arts Development Officer for South Gloucestershire Council. Trish introduced her talk, the name of which was "Dream On", taken from graffiti on one of the Avon Ring Road signs. She drew peoples' attention to the ironic misspelling, 'decorate' instead of 'directorate'. She then went on to give a potted history of the Ring Road Scheme from the early 1990s when Avon County Council, working with Sustrans, commissioned fourteen artists to provide 64 public art features for the Ring Road Stage II scheme, detailing how actions and objections from 'Scrap it', a local environmental action group, had halted the development of the scheme for six years until finally South Gloucestershire Unitary Authority, following local government re-organisation in 1996 inherited the scheme. In 1998 work recommenced on the scheme and as Arts Development Officer, Trish took over management of the scheme. This resulted in a period of re-assessment of the appropriateness of the scheme and an evaluation of the commissions to date. Artists who had been originally commissioned were encouraged to re-visit their designs. As a result of this process some of the designs had evidently not endured the seven-year suspension and through subsequent discussion and negotiation were de-commissioned.
Trish was keen to adopt a fresh approach with innovative, contemporary designs, which celebrate the present and look to the future. She also wanted to involve local people, particularly young people where possible in design generation and the creative process.
Trish felt that this complex project had been successful due to the collaboration between artists, arts development, engineers and contractors in a range of challenging and innovative commissions. The public art projects are intended to enhance the Ring Road Scheme, encouraging pedestrians and cyclists to explore the new routes and the public art features along the way. As there had been considerable local opposition to the development of the Ring Road Stage II, the public art features aimed to give something back, create a sense of local ownership of the scheme and encourage people to explore and enjoy the cycle and pedestrian routes.
Avon Ring Road Project. Artist, Kevin Hughes working with Cadbury Heath and Made for Ever Youth Centres.
Photo: Paul Challis
Trish then showed slides of the work commissioned; Lorna Green's major earthwork sculpture 'The Chain and The Wheel', John Thompson's Warmley Brook Bridge, Sebastien Boyesen's Station Road and Stanley Road Underbridges, Walter Jack's Stiles, Plaques by Pauline Monkcom, and seating by Frank Taylor; and the new commissions by Phil Power, Val Steel, Kevin Hughes, Deborah Jones and Lorna Green.
Artist, Lorna Green started by outlining the history of her commission "The Chain and the Wheel" which started in 1994, the result of winning a competition organised by Sustrans and Avon County Council, now South Gloucestershire Council, to utilise 150,000 cubic metres of spoil which the last link of the Avon Ring Road would produce. Hundreds of drawings were made with the engineers and with modifications, now in 2002 the original concept is there on site. Lorna noted that reality is very different from drawings and models in a studio and often compromises are made to conform with safety regulations and practical issues etc. The project took 8 years to be completed and the planting scheme will be complete this Autumn. Lorna finished by suggesting that it was probably one of the biggest earth sculptures in the world.
Lee thanked both Trish and Lorna for their presentations and invited questions from the audience. The questions focused on Lorna's artwork.
Lee then introduced Andy Bell, AONB and Countryside Development Officer at Northern Devon Coast and Countryside Service and Arts Consultant, Lisa Harty. Andy gave the broad context of this project and outlined the area of North Devon. He then talked about the Coast and Countryside Service; who they were and what they did. Their involvement with art started in 1998 when they worked with Sustrans on the 'Art in the Travelling Landscape project', which was very successful. It had changed the way their staff worked and resulted in the Service's Joint Advisory Committee wanting to see further arts projects being developed and delivered. Andy talked about the special areas in which they work, the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and about the role he saw the arts playing in relation to these areas in terms of communication, enhancement and regeneration. In response to the desire to see further arts projects realized, the Service had commissioned Lisa Harty to produce a feasibility study.
Lisa then outlined the aims of the feasibility study, namely to identify the scope for further arts projects and how they might be developed and delivered. She talked about the work that had been carried out to inform and support the study and the findings of this work which were:
- here was significant scope and enthusiasm for further projects
- a need for advocacy
- a need for guiding principles and more information in relation to project development and management
- a need for knowledge of and access to appropriate funding mechanisms.
She went on to talk about the recommendations that had arisen from these findings and the four pilot projects that were presently being developed - projects that would act as statements of intention, indicating what was possible in terms of art commissioning.
Andy talked about the issues that face the development of this initiative and the plans for moving it forward; the proposed development of an arts resource within the Service, changing the Service's approach and embedding the arts into the Integrated Rural Action Plan.
Lisa finished by saying that there was a need to create flagship projects that built confidence and advocated the benefits of involving the arts in a wide range of initiatives in order to create a climate where it is recognised that the arts can be used as a tool to contribute to a process of revitalisation, and the social and economic regeneration of the area.
Lee thanked Lisa and Andy for their presentation and after a brief period of questions introduced Lucy Milton from Helix Arts.
Lucy started by saying that her presentation was both a personal narrative as well as the story of a project which had all started in her allotment some 10 years ago, when she had recognized the effects of climate change on her fruit and vegetables. It was with this issue in mind that she began to see the possibilities of artists using their lateral thinking and creative processes in order to bring an entirely new dimension to creating sustainable futures. By setting up an exemplary project locally, it could act as a catalyst and help seed a critical mass of positive solutions, thereby finding a connection from the local to the global.
Lucy talked about Helix Arts; a charity which pioneers collaborative partnerships through the arts in the North East of England and which networked nationally and internationally. Having previously been involved in projects where artists contributed to environmental and social change via inter-disciplinary collaborations, they decided to set up a collaborative project with artists, scientists and communities to jointly tackle water pollution.
They initiated a brainstorming day, bringing together artists, scientists and environmental activists, with the help of Dr. Paul Younger, from the Civil Engineering Department at Newcastle University. Paul spoke about the unseen nature of water pollution problems in the region, PLATFORM spoke inspiringly about interdisciplinary collaboration on a hidden rivers project in London and 'Seen & Unseen' (web-site: www.seen-unseen.com) was born.
Paul was able to alert them to members of the Quaking Houses Environmental Trust, villagers in County Durham whose local burn was being polluted with iron and aluminum from an abandoned mine. Paul had been working with them on developing a pilot wetland.
Helix Arts (then Artists' Agency) agreed to fund-raise for a full-scale wetland, involving an experimental artist, scientists and the community, thus enabling each partner to contribute their particular area of knowledge and expertise. This three way collaboration added a new dimension to the now-familiar notion of artist/scientist collaboration. The community was an essential element, as they provided local knowledge of the environment and without them the project would not be sustainable. After three years of fundraising they finally created and finished the wetland with a community celebration in November 1997.
Helix Arts: Quaking Houses Project.
Photo: Colin Cuthbert
Lucy went on to show extracts from a CD Rom about the development of the Wetland.
The project was award-winning and represented ground-breaking innovation, both scientific and artistic. The scientific processes in developing the wetland won the UK Henry Ford European Conservation Awards in 1998. But there were problems which Lucy went on to outline: the village was dumped on particularly during the Foot and Mouth crisis; personnel problems were caused when key people left; the wetland was one mile away from the village and this caused safety issues for young people; funding and maintenance budgets were very difficult to negotiate; the pressure of deadlines proved difficult for the villagers and whilst the involvement of the scientist was easy to justify it was harder to validate the artists involvement.
Lucy finished on an upbeat note by saying that ultimately Quaking Houses may still have its problems but at least the Trust have realised their ambition for clean water and a more beautiful and healthy environment. She said that they were keen to network so please keep in touch so we may form part of a critical mass of arts projects tackling environmental issues locally, and raising awareness about their importance nationally and ultimately globally.
Lee thanked Lucy for her presentation and invited questions from the audience. The questions which were asked raised issues of ethical funding of the project and whether the scheme could have been achieved without an artist's involvement. After a break for tea the meeting returned for the plenary session. Lee opened this session by summarising the three presentations as :
Trish and Lorna - sharing examples of an environment still suffering change.
Andy and Lisa - discussing preliminary stages of embarking on projects and consultative work.
Lucy - a particular issue which resulted in a collaborative response.
A lively debate then followed which largely centred on collaborating with and consulting with the community:
- The need to involve the community in the process on the onset of a project.
- The difficulty of reaching everyone.
- How communities can become alienated.
- The difficulty of attracting people to public meetings.
- The role the press play in the consultative process.
- The need to be realistic about the fact that we will never win everyone over.
- The involvement of communities in the artistic process ensures a greater understanding and ownership of the final artwork.
- A Canadian model where the community chose the artist and informed the artwork that she produced.
- That eventually you need to stop consulting and have strength in one's convictions.
- Is it that we are not assertive enough ?
- How do we increase our credibility ?
- That there must be an element of trust placed on the artist.
- That vandalism could be seen as a result of someone having engaged with a piece of work.
- The difference between trust and accountability. The abuse/misues of these words had resulted in them having lost meaning.
The Chair then summed up the afternoon's events, thanked the speakers, the host South Gloucestershire and the audience for its lively contribution and then closed the meeting.
Lisa Harty, Network Co-ordinator, on behalf of PASW