News: Reports: Building Cultures: A Manifesto of Possibilities

Action Workshop Report by Rosemary Shirley

Manifesto report image

The action workshop 'A Manifesto of Possibilities' took place on 15 February 2007 at Birkbeck, University of London and was funded by the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise.

‘A Manifesto of Possibilities’ was preceded by a series of three Building Cultures discussion events, developed by Dr. Cameron Cartiere (Arts Management Department, Birkbeck, University of London) which took place in May 2006. These events were centred on the themes: Public Art and Community Involvement, held at Tate Modern, Art, Community and Urban Regeneration, held at the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Art Activism and the Community, which took place at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.

These events provided the opportunity for artists, curators, educators, politicians, and other professionals involved in public art processes to engage in dialogue and raise the issues and concerns generated by their work in the public realm. It is perhaps useful to think of these events as the first part of a conversation where the airing of views and sharing of experiences takes place. The next step, or the second part of the conversation is to work out how these issues can be addressed and devise positive action, this was the idea behind ‘A Manifesto of Possibilities’.

Organised by Dr. Cartiere and Sophie Hope (B+B), this event was structured as an action workshop rather than a traditional style conference. Dr. Cartiere said that this decision was inspired by the frustration she felt at the numerous conferences she had attended where, although the speakers had been excellent and the participants' contributions insightful, there had been few outcomes which actually moved the field forward. It was therefore emphasised to all participants that their active involvement in the workshop was crucial to the aim of the day, which was to compose a set of action points which could be taken forward into a manifesto document.

Sophie Hope launched the workshop by presenting dominant themes which emerged from a collation of the discussions which took place at the three previous Building Cultures events. The five areas, identified by Cartiere and Hope were: The Changing Roles of Public Art; Public Art and Urban Renewal, Regeneration and Gentrification; The Public Art Profession; Evaluation and Public Art as a Negotiating Power. The delegates were divided into break-out groups and given the task of devising at least two action points which would address concerns in each of the five areas; an ambitious task and one which created much heated discussion.

The organisers were admirable in their rigorous adherence to the intended structure and outcomes of the day, aware that while the questioning of terms of reference which often takes place at any gathering of creative people is important, it can however act as a block to actually achieving anything. This strategy yielded results, with each group presenting a set of action points for wider debate in a feedback and discussion session ably chaired by Baroness Lola Young. Proposed action points included calls for: artists to be designated equity with other professionals involved in public art projects, the development of systems to allow knowledge sharing particularly in reference to models of evaluation and good practice and the recognition of the importance of risk in delivering successful public art projects.

The action points that were generated at this event will be assembled to form the beginnings of the manifesto. The potential audience for this document was also an under debate, however it is planned that it will be available for comment online in the form of an interactive website and then it will be distilled into a document to be published in a journal, with a PDF version available electronically. It seems important to comment that the organisers and the participants emphasised that the creation of such a document does not represent the end of the argument; instead it is intended to engage all those working in the public realm to join the debate.

Download the final report (April 2008) as an Adobe Acrobat document, 73KB.

Further details:
http://wiki.bbk.ac.uk/Buildingcultures/index.php/Manifesto_of_Possibilities

Rosemary Shirley is an artist, writer and editor of Leisure Centre www.leisurecentre.org.uk.

This report was previously published in Green Places, April 2007, www.landscape.co.uk.