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Making Art Caitlin Mackesy Davies Explores How Interactive, Temporary and Magical Arts Events Are Changing the Way That Viewers and Funders Look at Public Art

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Making Art Caitlin Mackesy Davies Explores How Interactive, Temporary and Magical Arts Events Are Changing the Way That Viewers and Funders Look at Public Art magicMaking art Caitlin Mackesy Davies explores how interactive, temporary and magical arts events are changing the way that viewers and funders look at public art 7 May 2005. A 42-ton mechanical elephant criticism of their cost. Artichoke co-director Certainly, it’s an extraordinary day when strides past London’s most famous Helen Marriage says it can be difficult to get people abandon their belongings in the heart landmarks accompanied by an amazed anyone to engage in critical discourse about of London and return hours later to find crowd one million strong, and a frolicking Artichoke projects, because they are simply them untouched and youngsters run mechanical girl standing some 30ft high. so successful in provoking astonishment, unaccompanied through empty London Two years later, a 50ft spider forsakes and an irresistible urge to join with others streets as they would through a local its home on a derelict office block to roam in believing that magic can exist in, and playground – stories related to Marriage through Liverpool’s city centre, eventually reactivate, our urban spaces. after the three-day Sultan’s Elephant event. disappearing into the Queensway Tunnel in And magic it must be, when a million a shower of snow as 5,000 people look on. people converged on a tiny urban area Extraordinaryexperience These modern-day marvels are just two without one reported incidence of related It’s this magic, this sense of communal of the projects imagined by the charitable crime; no significant incidents or injuries; experience and trust, that drives Marriage. trust Artichoke, which has made its name when ‘crowd control’ amounted to only bits She wants to bring the arts to those who producing ambitious arts projects that put of rope and polite requests to move back don’t feel comfortable in a dedicated gallery the emphasis on imagination, engagement from the volunteer force leading the or museum space, to take artists’ work and interaction, and are getting the public Elephant and his Girl through the West (including well-known figures like Antony re-engaged with the idea of public art. End. Marriage says the Arts Council even Gormley) and use it to bring together the Historically, public art projects have been received messages that read: ‘If this is my community, to allow people to do something greeted with cynicism about their worth and taxes, more please!’ ‘radically outside of their experience’. ‘In a 18 EngagE | WInTER 2011 sector impact ‘In a world where we are very good at technological innovation, there isn’t any world where we are very good at It was also And again, technological innovation, there isn’t any what prompted magic in it, no sense of “I can’t economic concerns magic in it, no sense of “I can’t believe what Liverpool to ask believe what I’m seeing” — were unfounded. I’m seeing” – that’s what we do and that’s Artichoke to bring that’s what we do, that’s According to what I’m interested in creating.’ the Elephant to the research by BDRC, At a time when magic may not in itself city for its European what I’m interested more than £2m of win investment, these events also look Capital of Culture year, in creating’ additional expenditure good on paper. The Sultan’s Elephant may says Marriage – a request was made against a £1.8m have cost £1.3m (funded largely by The that couldn’t be fulfilled cost, based on 250,000 Arts Council and the Mayor of London), because of the topography of that spectators, generating some 40 but a study by Visit London showed that city, but which led to the five-day visit of jobs in the city. Crucially, for a city that the average spend per visitor put some a giant spider dubbed ‘La Princesse’ and has struggled with its image and to broadcast £28m back into the local economy. Also created by theatrical engineers La Machine. the value of its cultural offering, 97 per cent crucial, but less easily quantified, was the There was anxiety, and concern about the of visitors who were not residents of national and international media interest impact on traffic, but Liverpool welcomed Liverpool said they were at least quite likely generated by the event, which as Marriage its enormous arachnid. Again, coverage to visit the city again, bringing more custom says, ‘turned art into a news story’ and reached as far as China, and spectators were with them in the future. bolstered London’s reputation as a capital enchanted, with many experiencing the city If, as Barbara Follett MP wrote in Not of imagination. streets in an entirely new way. Only… But Also: Capturing the Value of www.ncvo-vol.oRg.uk 19 Culture, Media and Sport (June 2009), ‘In residents owned it and had developed it, a world of limited resources, it is imperative and encouraged them to attend the ‘more that we are able to articulate the value challenging’ arts events later held in it. these activities add to society…’ – that Recent project Wonders of Weston has case, both economically and socially, allowed a group of artists to re-imagine is clearly beginning to be made. public spaces in Weston-super-Mare. The works include sculptures that transform Aimtoinform viewing points out to sea and a ‘night-time For Claire Doherty, making the case is part luminescent phenomenon’. and parcel of her work at Situations, an arts A crucial concern for Doherty here was to commissioning and research programme ensure that the works didn’t have the feeling based at the University of the West of of being parachuted into the town, a common England in Bristol. In common with complaint launched at public art. So the Artichoke, Situations aims to broaden project has been wrapped in a diverse participation and develop new audiences programme of engagement, including a for contemporary art outside a gallery website, downloadable guides and work context. Doherty combines direct with local schools. Doherty has work with artists with research ‘These worked hand in hand with and writing around how North Somerset Council, artists produce their work kinds of which will now look after in a collaborative or public projects represent and use the project. context, what is produced and what results are a model, surely, Sharedprojects achieved. ‘It’s not about of why it is vital At Artangel, which has validation,’ she stresses, been creating immersive ‘although there is certainly to make public artist-led experiences pressure on any curator, investment in since 1992, co-director commissioner or arts the arts’ Michael Morris emphasises organisation that is funded the need not to shortchange publicly to have evidence of the the development process. ‘It’s impact of the work it is doing. For me, about giving the project the time it needs it’s much more about informing us as to be a shared project, to establish the trust commissioners to make the process better of a particular community,’ he says. and to inform the professional sector as well.’ He draws on the experience of producing Doherty has just finished a three-year The Arbor, a project that explored the legacy research project that led to the of writer Andrea Dunbar on the beleaguered recommendation that longer periods need to Buttershaw Estate in Bradford. Dunbar be allowed for public artworks to develop in wrote the autobiographical play The Arbor, order for them to have the greatest effect on as well as Rita, Sue and Bob Too, about her the public. ‘We’ve learned that the ideal traumatic life on the estate. Nearly two situation is that one [temporary] project is decades after Dunbar’s death, the artist followed by another, because it gets better and Clio Barnard visited the community, better, deeper and deeper. You are able to do interviewing relatives of Dunbar and more ambitious and more challenging things.’ residents of the estate, over the course of These findings feed back into Situations’ two years. The audio interviews were woven recommendations for public policy into together into a critically acclaimed film, and government as well as into its own work. the process involved producing an open-air ‘There needs to be a greater understanding performance of the original play on the by councils and government of how streets of the estate that had inspired it. [community impact] happens.’ None of the residents had seen the play Other Situations projects have brought before, explains Morris, so ‘it was as if home the importance of local ownership, something that happened 30 years ago was such as Black Cloud (pictured, page 18), being understood for the first time.’ For a wooden structure created by artists Morris, these unexpected outcomes, Heather and Ivan Morison that provided a discoveries and explorations are the point community space, meeting-point and shelter of the work: ‘It’s about a place or a situation for five months in Victoria Park, Bristol. The having the potential to ignite a project that project included a public barn-raising, when somehow touches people locally, nationally 60 members of the community erected the or internationally. These kinds of projects ominous, apocalyptic pavilion, and which, represent a model, surely, of why it is vital Doherty says, created a sense that local to make public investment in the arts.’ 20 EngagE | WInTER 2011 sector impact DIY Wonder Want to make your own magic? Here are some ideas and advice from our experts: Becertain Tomakeaneventwork,youmustbe certainthatitisgoingtohappen,says Artichoke’sHelenMarriage.‘What drivesmeisthecertaintythatthis isgoingtobeglorious.’ put place first ‘I’mdrivenbythinkingthroughhowa workreallyrespondstoandcontributes somethingtoaplace,’saysClaire DohertyofSituations.‘Youdothat throughmakingworksthatare remarkableandcapturetheimagination andnotbyworksthatareinsensitiveor irrelevanttothelocalcontext.’ Don’t ask permission ‘Weseekpermission,wedon’task permission,’assertsHelenMarriage.
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