PASW Regional Newsletter: Spring 2005
Ixia Update
ixia is pleased to formally announce the appointment of their new chairperson, Henry Lydiate. With effect from 13 October 2004 , Henry Lydiate replaced Sam Wilkinson as the chair of ixia. ixia would like to extend a huge thank you to Sam for her commitment and support over the past years. Sam remains on the board of ixia as a director.
During 2004 ixia commissioned OPENspace to carry out research on assessing impact and quality in public art. To date an evaluation framework has been developed that is sensitive to the needs of public art and the nature of public art practice. It is designed to be used by all stakeholders in a public art project from the outset and to increase mutual awareness of diverse agendas and desired outcomes of a project. The toolkit allows for internal views of a project's progress and success, eg. from the artist's perspective, to be elicited and compared with external indicators of impact and quality. It is being tested with a range of case studies in early 2005.
On 15 March at Think Tank, Millennium Point, in Birmingham, ixia's event 'Public Art ñ regeneration, diversity and engagement' will be taking place. This one day event for those engaged in the commissioning, production and mediation of public art and the built environment will explore current practice in the context of regeneration, engagement and diversity. The agenda for discussion will be introduced in a series of papers contributed by artist Pervaiz Khan, Katherine Clarke from MUF and Noha Nasser from the University of Central England, all of whom will facilitate the working groups on the day. The day will be chaired by Wendy Shillam of Shillam + Smith Architecture and Urbanism.
Desirable Places: artists' role in creating public places, was published in September 2004. This new publication brings together texts invited in response to the current context for commissioning public art. Desirable Places offers interpretations of the relationship between art, people and place, and the agendas shaping the design and delivery of our public spaces. Texts include:
Living by Design: City Life & The Work of Art, Steve Pile, Reader in Cultural Geography at the Open University.
Art & The Space of Relations, David Webb, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Staffordshire University .
'I Won an Artist in a Raffle' Melanie Jordan & Andrew Hewitt, Artists.
Unbridled Lust: The Past Revealed, The Future Release, Alberto Duman, Artist.
Collaboration, Discipline and Ownership, Nayan Kulkarni, Artist.
The publication is available to order from Central Books ñ for further information on this and all of our activities join the email network at IXIA-info.com.
IXIA, Unit 114, The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B9 4AA.
Tel: 0121 753 5301.
Emma Larkinson, Director, ixia