News: 11 November 2004
Ten schemes chosen to boost regeneration across the UK
PROJECT has awarded over £106,000 to support the involvement of artists in a range of exciting and groundbreaking projects throughout the UK. Artists will be working with design teams on new schools, the regeneration of town centres, new arterial routes, and housing and community regeneration projects.
An initiative to regenerate key roads into the city of Belfast, a housing and masterplanning scheme in East Lancashire and a sculptural project to transform the look of large-scale tips and excavations are just some of the high-lights of the first round of the PROJECT awards.
Since its launch in June, PROJECT has received enormous interest from around the country and at its first panel meeting reviewed over forty schemes. The ten schemes will be featured on www.project-awards.org.uk and will be developed over the next year.
Richard Simmons, Chief Executive, CABE commented:
ëWe are extremely excited at the potential of the ten projects. The amazing response we have had to the award scheme illustrates the growing interest for the involvement of artists in regeneration and we anticipate more good things to come.'
Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of Arts & Business said:
ëArts & Business is encouraged that there is private sector engagement in half of the projects. We look forward to the development of these exciting collaborations and to working with Public Art South West and CABE to enthuse more built environment businesses to work with artists in this way. PROJECT complements the success of Arts & Business New Partners in showing the built environment private sector the power of exploring creative solutions with the arts.'
Maggie Bolt, Director, Public Art South West, said:
ëWe are delighted that PROJECT has caught the imagination of the private and public sectors throughout the UK. The response we have had and the awards we have been able to make to high quality projects demonstrates that the value and worth of including artists' creative thinking and processes in regeneration, building and housing projects is being recognised. There are three more rounds of funding to award until March 2006 and we look forward to seeing the fruits of this investment from CABE and Arts & Business.'
Comedia has been appointed to carry out independent evaluation for PROJECT into the practical ways in which artists contribute to public realm projects, and the impact of their input on projects both at the design stage and on the ongoing practice of design team members. Their findings will be available Spring 2006.
Notes for Editors
To register your interest please email [email protected] , visit www.project-awards.org.uk or contact PROJECT on 01392 229266.
PROJECT is managed by Public Art South West and funded by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and Arts & Business (A&B). During the course of the next two years it will award £300,000 to schemes, which will engage artists in a range of projects that will have a positive impact on the places in which we live. The scheme involves the arts, culture, design, education, environment, healthcare, housing and regeneration sectors in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It supports artists' imaginative and creative contributions to the early stages of master planning, design frameworks and new building initiatives.
For further press information please contact Dominique Owen, CABE press office on 020 7960 2470 or [email protected] or Victoria Record at A&B on 020 7940 6692 or [email protected] or Maggie Bolt, PASW on 01392 229226 or [email protected]
CABE champions the creation of great buildings and public spaces. It is a non-departmental public body set up by the Government in 1999. Through public campaigns and support to professionals, CABE encourages the development of well-designed homes, streets, parks, offices, schools, hospitals and other public buildings - www.cabe.org.uk
Arts & Business is the world's most successful & widespread creative network. It helps business people support the arts & the arts inspire business people because good business & great art together create a richer society.
Arts & Business New Partners helps businesses try something new with the arts. Arts & Business invests across the UK in partnerships that deepen the relationship between arts and business and encourage new ways for the sectors to work together. Go to www.AandB.org.uk
Award Details
Arterial Routes Initiative, Belfast, Visionary Award
The Arterial Routes Initiative, led by Belfast City Council, aims to develop integrated regeneration plans for designated key roads into the city of Belfast. Very little design work has been completed to date and the PROJECT award will enable an artist to join a collaborative visioning process from an early stage, between November 2004 and October 2005. Project partners within the city council span all urban development services and include regeneration, arts and culture, economic development, community development, parks and tourism and are brought together in an All-Party working group and Officer Steering Group ëAttractiveness of the City'. External, advisory partners include the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, ëplace' the Built Environment Centre for Northern Ireland and strategically placed community organisations at the heart of proposed and identified priority areas within the project and with the capacity to involve local people.
Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Creative Communities Award
Aberdeenshire Council, working in association with the Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership and the Revitalisation of Harbour Towns Project, has endorsed the priority and need for environmental regeneration in Peterhead. Increasingly, local people and business promote the importance and need for an improved public realm and a higher quality environment. European funds have recently been awarded to improve the image of Peterhead, make a positive impact on key public places in the town and enhance the quality of life for local people. PROJECT will support the appointment of an artist to join a collaborative process of research, consultation and design towards the regeneration of Peterhead. Key public sites include Kirk Street, the most important access point into the town centre, in a current state of decline and disrepair, and the town's community education centre.
Learning Spaces ñ Living Places, Birmingham, Team-Building Award
ëLearning Spaces ñ Living Places' is the title of the PROJECT award to Birmingham City Council's Learning & Culture Directorate. The project aims to pilot and evaluate the potential of artists as ëprovocateurs', to radically challenge and change the working practices of developers, local authority officers and schools staff, and to influence the educational built environment and learning spaces through Building Schools for the Future. Research, training, marketing and officer support time is planned with an artist to raise the level of debate about the nature and quality of design, to meet the needs and aspirations of children and young people and their communities, and to transform learning spaces in the future.
Homerton City Playscape, London, Talking Artists Award
Homerton is situated in the London Borough of Hackney. It has a diverse population with 40% of residents coming from ethnic minority communities. PROJECT will enable City Projects to work with the artist Nils Norman to plan and design ëa sprawling extension' to the Homerton Adventure Playground, taking as a starting point the work of the Dutch architect Aldo Van Eyck (1918-1999) who designed over 700 playgrounds between 1947 and 1978 for the city of Amsterdam. A drawing will be produced as a foldout poster and distributed to local shops, pubs, cafés and libraries. The drawing will also be produced as a large vinyl poster (360x450cm) and exhibited at the City Projects space that lies 100 yards from the adventure playground. Addressing issues such as the use of public space, town planning and the provision of adequate play areas for children, Norman proposes a timely, fantastic and radical regeneration strategy for the area.
Creating Inspiring Neighbourhoods, Blackburn with Darwen, Visionary Award
PROJECT will engage an artist as part of the design team, which will produce masterplans for two neighbourhoods within Blackburn with Darwen's contribution to the Elevate East Lancashire Housing Market Restructuring Pathfinder. Whilst Blackburn with Darwen has a strong track record in procuring a lead artist for major creative challenges, it has not, as yet, integrated artists into housing regeneration at the outset, so this will provide an exciting opportunity for the entire team. It will provide an innovative and creative opportunity for an artist to work as part of a multidisciplinary professional Design Team on an equal footing with engineers, architects, housing professionals and town planners to produce new visions for some of our more deprived and declining neighbourhoods in partnership with the local communities. The two areas involved are North Central Darwen and Audley/Queens Park which are very different in nature as well as being geographically separated and will represent very diverse challenges for the team.
Preston Tithebarn Regeneration Project, Visionary Award
Preston City Council and Grosvenor Limited are currently drafting a Development Agreement for the redevelopment of almost one third of Preston 's existing city centre, known as the Tithebarn Project. The project will be a mixed-use redevelopment and incorporate retail, leisure, cultural, business, residential and health components and result in an investment of some £500m in the city centre. It will include a new transport facility, a new markets quarter and will see a significant increase in both the quality and extent of the public realm. PROJECT will enable a lead artist to work with the design team and Farrell and Partners, the urban design and architectural master planners for the scheme. The Harris Museum and Art Gallery will work with Preston City Council on a programme of temporary art interventions for a transitional city, and a discussion programme about architecture and Preston 's regeneration. Charles Quick and Alfredo Jaar will share the lead artist role.
Chatham Place Development, Reading, Team-Building Award
The six acre Chatham Street Regeneration Area is being redeveloped by AMEC in partnership with Reading Borough Council for residential, commercial, retail and leisure use. It will extend the heart of the town centre to the west and create the first physical link in the town between the two sides of the Inner Distribution Road. The PROJECT award will fund an artist to join the multidisciplinary team working on the design and construction of a development which will incorporate 96 apartments for key workers and shared equity housing, 200 private flats, a car park, A3 retail units and a new public square. Chatham Street is identified as one of three key development areas in the town centre for mixed-use development by the Council as landowner and AMEC as developers with Broadway Malyan architects.
Shared Vision, Cambridgeshire, Visionary Award
ëShared Vision' is the title of a project to engage an artist in the development process of Arbury Camp, a major urban extension site on the northern fringe of the Cambridge city area and within the M11 development corridor. The PROJECT award will fund an artist to work with shape Cambridge and Commissions East to work in close partnership with South Cambridgeshire District Council, property developer Gallagher Estates and the East of England Development Agency. It aims to ensure effective collaboration with a visual artist in the planning process and to demonstrate, to other developers, statutory bodies and local authorities, the benefits and added value of an artist's role in shaping public spaces and places.
Re-think the tip: quarry landscaping into art, RMC, Exploration Award
RMC is an international UK based quarrying and building materials company employing 7000 people across Great Britain . In terms of design and planning, its core activities are the design and implementation of quarry working and restoration schemes, involving large scale excavation and waste tipping. RMC's Planning Department aims to integrate an artist's vision into the design of large-scale tips and excavations through collaborative working with its landscape architecture and planning team, and in discussion with local communities and Mineral Planning Authorities. The PROJECT award will enable internationally renowned artist and architect, Charles Jencks, to work with RMC on the project. Large-scale subtle landforming is a key element of his work. In 2004 his Landform project sited at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art won the museum the £100,000 Gulbenkian prize.
Habitation, Environment, Community ñ a new publication series exploring arts practice and the public realm, Talking Artists Award.
A partnership between Article Press at the University of Central England and ixia, previously known as Public Art Forum, aims to publish three publications addressing themes of Environment, Community and Habitation. The publications will explore links between arts practice and the public realm and consider urbanism, architecture, ecology, geography, economic development, social sciences and target academics, practitioners and policy makers. The PROJECT award will enable three artists to guest edit one of the three publications. An Editorial Working Group will consist of representatives of ixia, the University of Central England, Article Press and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. The project is also supported by an Advisory Board comprising artists, architects, lecturers and curators form the UK, Europe and the USA.
Three further PROJECT application rounds follow in 2004-2005 with the next closing date for outline proposals on 3 December 2004. Further information is available from:
PROJECT - engaging artists in the built environment
Public Art South West, PO Box 189, Exeter EX4 3XL
Tel: 01392 229266; Fax: 01392 229229
e-mail: [email protected];
website: www.project-awards.org.uk