PASW Regional Newsletter: Spring 2000
Mutley Plain Regeneration Initiative
Mutley Plain Regeneration Initiative (MPRI) is a partnership between Plymouth City Council's Economic Development Team, and Community and Traders Associations. They have won an SRB award to make environmental improvements in Mutley, an out of town shopping centre, which has many of the familiar urban issues. Public Art is central to the process of carrying out the work.
I was brought in to develop a brief for a lead artist who will be an integral and equal partner within a project commissioning team. The project is a relatively small one, but we hope that the commissioning team will make a big impact by appIying a creative and integrated urban design approach to the issues and needs of Mutley Plain.
This approach presents a new model for Plymouth City Council, and we are feeling our way forward. It can be difficult to work within structured mechanisms such as SRB and Lottery, while still maintaining scope for the team to make genuine creative decisions.
I am now setting the Urban Design Framework policies for Mutley, and designing evaluation methods, all from an arts perspective. MPRI- a small project which we hope will prove a valuable model.
Diana Hatton, Public Art Consultant