PASW Regional Newsletter: Spring 2006
Focus On Current Projects & Issues
Zest: Arts for Health, Plymouth
This is a new project that is improving healthcare environments for patients, visitors and staff in Plymouth and the surrounding area. The project is hosted by Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and supported by Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust and Arts Council England South West. It is working closely with health professionals, the wider community, artists and other arts professionals to improve the patient experience and staff working lives.
The core focus is integrating a dynamic and innovative cross-arts programme within a £600 million+ capital development, which is planned for Plymouth. Zest is working closely with design teams ensuring that excellent built environments are created which will include relevant creative interventions. The majority of the programme is delivered through an artist in residence programme.
Concept for LCD Wall for new medical library.
Artist: Robin Blackledge.
Projects so far have included:
- Mount Gould Community Hospital - an ongoing project in partnership with the Plymouth Museum Service, working with patients on a Reminiscence Project to create artworks that will be taken to the new local care centre currently being built on the same site. The mainly frail elderly patients have a wealth of experience and local knowledge that easily be lost in the move; this project will help give the community ownership of their new care centre. Building on the experience gained here more projects are planned for the future.
- Peninsula Medical School (PMS) Special Study Unit - working with fourth year students looking at the value of creative work in healthcare settings.
- Peninsula Radiography Academy (PRA) - working with digital artist Tahera Aziz to produce artwork for the new PRA, which opened in December 2005. Tahera will be working with state of the art digital medical imaging. This is one of only three such environments in the UK.
- Plateau Project - a £40million project providing improved cardiothoracic (heart) services for Plymouth and the surrounding area, and a new staff library. Zest has led two major consultation exercises, both involving artists and designers to stimulate and inform the debate: artist, Robin Blackledge, is working with staff and stakeholders to create a unique space for learning and research (staff library), which includes integrated artworks and a major consultation exercise has taken place over the Christmas and New Year period, in which patients, staff and visitors have all been involved with artists in looking at the different options for establishing an identity for the Plateau building and incorporating the new building in the wayfinding strategy for the whole hospital. Many of the patients and visitors consulted came to the hospital from other parts of Devon and from Cornwall for specialist services and they favoured an identity routed in the natural world but one which reflected the wider geographic area they come from.
For more details on any aspect of Zest's work please contact:
Trystan Hawkins, Artistic Director
01752 437006 trystan.hawkins@phnt.swest.nhs.uk
General Public Agency's work in Dorset
Since November 2005, General Public Agency has been working with Dorset County Council to develop a new strategy for championing good design in the built environment. The aim is to enable the county to take a lead in new approaches to commissioning, evaluating and promoting the best new development in the unique setting of Dorset's historic landscape.
GPA has been undertaking research on issues in the county and is currently developing proposals for training programmes, possible demonstration projects, and artist or collaborative projects, contributing to a new understanding of Dorset's heritage and contemporary culture that can inform planning and architecture in the county. It is also considering different models for an advisory group or forum to help the local authorities in Dorset further develop their skills, understanding and commitment to the highest quality of design in the county.
Dorset has fantastic opportunities, in its existing landscape, historic buildings, the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the World Heritage Site of the Jurassic coastline, to inspire outstanding contemporary architecture and urban design. The county already has good examples of best practice in experimental design and the development of skills in rural building techniques. GPA is looking to build on the existing cultural and architectural identity of the county's towns and villages to provide the basis for an understanding of what contemporary forms might be appropriate to take the county forward. The study is taking a holistic approach to the social, environmental and physical issues in the area and how these could be addressed by new approaches to planning and design. Consideration is also being given to how the public engage with issues in the built environment and how new forms of engagement could be supported as part of the programme.
The county has a rural landscape that is unique in the country but it also needs to adapt to meet the needs of the communities that live in it. Dorset is already leading in the south west as the site of the pilot DEFRA Rural Pathfinder and this is another opportunity for the county to take the lead in a different field. The study will be completed in April and has been commissioned as part of the Dorset Strategic Partnership's work to deliver its new Community Strategy.
Hana Loftus, General Public Agency
Focus on Wiltshire
Swindon
The Public Art Officer, Celia Yeoman, has been working with PASW and planning colleagues on the appointment of a lead artist for design development of the Southern Development Area, a major community development to the south of Swindon.
The artist, Jane Kelly, has been working and commenting on design codes, and recommending the scope, themes and areas for the commissioning of public art. A report was prepared by Jane in early 2006, and work is now being undertaken to develop these recommendations within the S106 negotiation process with developers, and in developing designs for the Council owned green space in the SDA, which comprises about 40% of the site.
Wiltshire Districts
Public art development work has been ongoing across the four Wiltshire districts, led by arts development officers working with a freelance consultant. The work, resourced by PASW and with contributions from North Wiltshire District Council and Salisbury District Council, has centred on bringing current national and regional thinking and models of good practice to the attention of officers and exploring opportunities within the districts to work on pilot projects, in order to test out new ways of working.
Tasks include:
- working with planning policy colleagues on opportunities to use public art policy to raise design standards and awareness across Wiltshire
- working with planning implementation colleagues to increase opportunity for meaningful developer contributions, and identify mechanisms to do so
- researching the possibility of sharing a post across the four districts, funded through the ACE Partnership Agreement, to continue developing opportunities and quality public art throughout the county.
In common with many districts, the Arts Development Officers are under-resourced and over stretched. Their remit is very wide, and none of the ADOs had any significant public art experience. Salisbury and West Wiltshire ADOs attended the PASW officer training late in 2005. The work with the consultant and the work on pilots, which the ADOs have undertaken themselves, have revealed real opportunities within their authorities and across the county in terms of developer contributions, adding positively to changes in planning policy and in work with regeneration, planning and urban design colleagues. The ADOs feel, however, that they need intensive 'skilling up', before they can begin to advocate to other colleagues and members, and they also recognise that they need to identify additional resources in order to manage the opportunities which undoubtedly exist. What the joint working is also mindful to achieve is a strategic and quality response to public art opportunities and commissions which all districts can 'sign up to', and which can be practically implemented.
The initial work has already brought significant results:
North Wiltshire is working with Wiltshire County Council to commission digital arts work within the new County Records Office on the old Cattle Market site at Chippenham. Officers are also looking at integrating artists throughout the refurbishment of the Pound Arts Centre. Current plans include placing an artist with the acoustic consultant.
West Wiltshire has negotiated two public art contributions from developers after work with senior development control officers. Both schemes are for major residential developments and will be worth, in total, £150,000. The ADO, Meril Morgan, has negotiated the inclusion of a lead artist on the scheme, as well as integrating the project management costs.
Salisbury ADO, Rachel Efemey, has worked alongside colleagues and the scheme architect, Stanton Williams, to commission lead artist Gordon Young, to the Salisbury Office Centralisation project.
Kennet does not currently have an Arts Development Officer, but is working on opportunities to strengthen public art contributions through new planning legislation.
The ArtCare project in Salisbury District Hospital
Does art make you feel better?
Of course it does, at least many people think it does. Nevertheless, when providing an arts programme in a hospital setting the question above is key. After all, the purpose of the place is to make people better and there is a discreet understanding that artworks may contribute to healing and well being. Artworks are brought in that suit the healing environment and arts co-ordinators learn to strike the balance between challenging and pleasing.
Metal screen of reflective modular shapes.
Artist: Penny Robbins.
ArtCare in Salisbury District Hospital is one of the main arts in health programmes in the south west region. Set up in 1993, the project is now well established and enjoys a very good reputation among staff, the general public, artists and other arts organisations in the Salisbury area. The acute hospital is in application to become a Foundation Trust and visitors remark that the overall good standard of care is reflected in the care for the hospital environment. ArtCare runs an active corridor exhibitions programme (framed works and sculpture), advises hospital teams on refurbishment, and has a commissioning programme. Less visible to the general public but equally important are participatory arts activities, such as drawing and creative writing for patients, a regular staff arts club, and occasional performances of music and theatre. In its twelve year history, ArtCare has succeeded in softening the 'forbidding' environment to a more gentle and friendly hospital atmosphere, where patients, visitors and staff find time to stop and take in the works of art on display. Its success is credit to a team of four part-time arts professionals, clearly embedded in the hospital's organisational structure (although funded from charitable sources), who are able to respond quickly when artistic input is needed, and initiate projects where there are opportunities. In 2004 ArtCare was declared winner of the NHS Estates Building Better Healthcare Award for 'Outstanding use of art in hospitals'.
New Art on Site
In terms of public art, Salisbury District Hospital has raised its profile with the opening of a new clinical extension (PFI) in the spring of this year (2006). ArtCare has been able to commission a series of major artworks to enhance the new building with colour and design, as well as being welcoming and contributing to wayfinding or orientation - important 'functional' aspects of hospital art. Commissioned artists include Chris Tipping (floors), Binita Walia (glass), Tom Wilkinson (kinetic), Penny Robbins (metal screen), Keith Rand and Antony Holloway (sculptures in wood) and stone carvers Zoe Cull, Alex Frendo-Evans and Pete Yarwood. The New Art on Site programme has aimed to look at the hospital site as a whole, where artworks may bring an element of surprise, discovery and inspiration, parallel to their uplifting and soothing qualities. However, although hospitals are public buildings, they are also private spaces for ill people, their visitors and others at work, where the gifts that artworks may bring always remain in the eye of the beholder.
Peter Ursem, General Manager ArtCare
For information about ArtCare and to see images of the New Art On Site commissions visit www.artcare.salisburyhealthcare.org
Barnstaple Regeneration Schemes
Situated in north Devon, Barnstaple, with a population of approximately 30,000, is identified as a Sub Regional Centre in the Devon Structure Plan. Its sub regional role, as a centre for commercial, economic, cultural, health and social activities, extends across northern Devon into parts of West Devon, North Cornwall and West Somerset. Barnstaple is a strategically important town and, in line with the local development framework, the North Devon Local Plan identifies a number of sites as redevelopment areas. North Devon District Council is working with the County Council, which is responsible for a number of highways schemes currently at development stage within the town (for example The Strand redevelopment and the integration of the Western Bypass scheme) and in partnership with private sector developers, to realise a vision that results in the highest quality design of the environment, creating new public spaces, improving physical and visual connections between areas and enhancing the vitality and viability of the town. The role that artists can play in the overall master planning and achievement of these objectives has been recognised at officer and member level.
Funding for a lead artist role was applied for and secured through 'PROJECT, engaging artists in the built environment', the national funding scheme which is jointly supported by the Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment and Arts & Business, and managed by Public Art South West. With funding in place and following a national competition, artist Simon Watkinson was appointed in May as lead artist, to work with the design teams on developing blueprints for the areas around the Cattle Market, Queen Street and the Strand. Simon Watkinson, who is based in Newcastle, has worked on a number of schemes in the UK, producing artwork for Poole District Council, the Environment Agency, Sustrans, Newcastle City Council, The Grainger Town Partnership and as Lead Artist for Fakenham Town Centre.
The aspiration of the process is to facilitate the development and realisation of artworks that are embedded and integrated into the overall design of the developments and not to create stand alone artworks. The lead artist, as a key member of the design team, will be working closely with planners and other design professionals at all stages of the project, thereby ensuring continuous dialogue about all elements of the scheme and the resulting planning and health and safety implications. The lead artist is not being asked to come up with concepts for stand alone artworks, rather to use his creative thinking and bring a different perspective to the design table - this project is about sustaining a new way of working with artists.
Lisa Harty, Project Manager