PASW Regional Newsletter: Spring 2003
Public Art South West Activities
Public Art South West takes a leading role in initiating a range of strategies for public art development in the region. We work in partnership with the public and private sectors, including local authorities, health care trusts, environmental groups, housing associations and the education sector. We also work with architects, urban designers, planners, developers, artists, arts administrators and many others. Our aim is to develop a wide range of opportunities for artists and craftspeople to contribute in diverse and innovative ways to our built and natural environment.
Recent projects and initiatives include:
Resources: www.publicartonline.org.uk
During the past six months we have added three new thumbnail sketches: Coventry Phoenix, Lightshift Project and Gallery in the Trees. We will also be adding two in depth case studies: Persistence Works and Nordens Farm - so watch out for these. The website has been a great success and we now wish to build on that by refreshing the site via a new and improved design and navigation system. We have undertaken some detailed research into what users would like to see, and as a result, plan to re-launch the unique public art resource during Spring. It will have a new look, improved navigation, a new search facility and newly commissioned information sheets, thumbnail sketches and case studies. So keep us in your ‘Favourites’ section!
Local Authorities:
We work closely with local authorities throughout the region. Recent projects include a series of presentations on behalf of Dorset County Council, linked to local authority arts officers’ training, a coastal regeneration scheme and as part of Dorset Art Week. We have also made presentations in Cornwall on the role of public art and regeneration and are supporting a public art post within Somerset County Council. We have started to make contact with new colleagues in Wiltshire and will be undertaking a series of visits to the new authorities in our region during the next six months. We have also supported the involvement of artists in a major regeneration programme for Gloucester Docks, been an advisor to the Torquay Harbour Public Realm Master Plan & Design and Penwith District Council on a range of current and planned initiatives. In addition we have been involved in the commissioning plan for the new Met Office in Exeter, a range of schemes within Exeter City Council and advising Devon County Council on the new PFI schools programme.
Health Authorities:
We continue to work closely with a range of Health Trusts throughout the region. A selection of projects we have been recently advising on are the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Health Care Trust’s research into working with primary health care, a series of Art and Architecture seminars for new GP surgeries in Cornwall as part of the Health Action zone, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust on devising an overarching arts strategy for the Trust, Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust on integrating artists within new PFI schemes and supported the involvement of a lead artist for the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust PFI Scheme.
New Initiatives:
The Urban White Paper called for a network of regional Centres of Excellence to be set up in England. We have been part of an advisory group called together by the South West Regional Development Agency to look in detail at the role of the Architecture, Planning and the Built Environment module, one of four which will comprise Creating: Excellence - the South West Regeneration Centre. It has now been agreed that the work we undertook in partnership with a range of key organisations in the South West on a strategy for Architecture and the Built Environment is to be a key document in informing the role of this module. We are currently working towards publication of the Strategy during the Spring.