PROOF of EVIDENCE of MATTHEW JARRATT BA (Hons) MA
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CD REFERENCE: I.6 LAND AT COLD LAW, NORTHUMBERLAND TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT 1990 TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING (INQUIRIES PROCEDURE) (ENGLAND) RULES 2000 APPEAL BY VISCOUNT DEVONPORT PROOF OF EVIDENCE OF MATTHEW JARRATT BA (Hons) MA ON BEHALF OF THE APPELLANT ARTS CONSULTANT PINS Reference: APP/P2935/W/20/3244389 LPA Reference: 19/00247/FUL FEBRUARY 2021 1 QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE 1.1 I am Matthew Jarratt and I have worked at a senior level in the arts sector for over 30 years. I have a particular specialism in the visual arts and in the commissioning of sculpture and public art. I am currently working as an Arts Consultant and Curator. I manage the North East Culture Partnership. 1.2 I have BA and MA qualifications in Fine Art and I spent 15 years at Arts Council England between 1998 and 2013. Between 2008 - 2010 I represented the cultural sector at the North East England Regional Office in Brussels. I also ran Commissions North which was the Arts Council's in-house public art commissioning agency which brokered around £12 million of arts commissions in the North East and published 3 books about public art in the North East and many school education and activity packs. 1.3 Since 2013 I have worked as an Arts Consultant across the UK, Europe and China on arts strategy, public art commissioning, curating exhibitions as well as an annual sculpture programme for a sculpture park in Northumberland, and writing books and magazine articles about the subject of arts commissioning. 1.4 In 2013 I became the first manager of the North East Culture Partnership. The Partnership brings the arts and heritage organisations of the region together with five universities and twelve local authorities. 1.5 In 2020 I wrote the North East Culture Recovery Plan and I have recently led the design and editing of a comprehensive book which has just been published for a 10-year Arts Strategy in Edinburgh. 1.6 I am a Visiting Professor in Creative Arts Practice at Newcastle University. I have been a Council Member for the Royal Society of British Sculptors, a Board Member for Heritage Lottery funded Landscape Partnership and am currently a Board Member for the children’s theatre, Theatre Hullabaloo. 1.7 In my role at Arts Council England and through my consultancy I have gained extensive experience in curating and commissioning public sculpture and public art and estimate that I have commissioned, designed, managed or brokered over 150 public art projects over the last 30 years. Within this portfolio of projects I have worked with Governments, community groups, private sector businesses and local authorities to help them develop their ideas, find high quality artists and deliver sustainable and unique arts commissions. 1.8 I joined Arts Council England in 1998, based in Newcastle, just as the Angel of the North was launched in Gateshead. The project attracted significant press and public controversy but also became an internationally recognised landmark for the region and stimulated a huge interest in public art commissioning, particularly in the North-East. As well as working 2 as a Visual Arts Officer for Arts Council England I established and led their in-house agency, Commissions North. This brokered over 100 public art projects across the region between 1999 and 2010. The largest project I have led was Anish Kapoor’s ‘Temenos’ sculpture in Middlesbrough – a project with a budget of £2.7 million, 50m tall and 120m long. In addition I led the selection of artists for the £1.5million public art programme for Grainger Town in the historic centre of Newcastle as part of a wider regeneration programme. 1.9 During my time at Arts Council England I played a development role within the contemporary Art and Architecture programme at Kielder in the Northumberland National Park. This began in the mid-1990s and has continued to commission many experimental and contemporary artworks in the landscape which are now part of the wider Kielder tourism offer. I worked on the artist selection and funding for ‘Couple’, the UK's first offshore sculpture which the Environment Agency commissioned in the Northumberland town of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in 2007. In addition, I worked on the design development of Northumberlandia – one of the largest land art projects in the world which was commissioned near Cramlington, Northumberland as part of the land reclamation following open cast mine work in 2012. 1.10 Since 2013 my Arts Consultancy work has enabled me to successfully complete new sculpture and poetry commissions in Sheffield, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Durham, Norwich and Leamington Spa. I am currently working on delivering the arts strategy for 10-year development in Edinburgh pursuant to which 6 new sculptures will be commissioned together with an artist designed building and numerous poetry commissions. 1.11 I have also established my practice in the Far East which has included being part of judging panels for artists public art competitions in China, curating exhibitions and currently developing visual arts projects for Japan and Singapore. 1.12 I continue to work regularly in Northumberland. The summer programme I curate each year at Cheeseburn Sculpture has shown the work of over 100 sculptors and I also mentor 10 young artists there each year to develop pubic art proposals. In 2021 I am developing an exhibition which will feature a range of emerging young North East artists who have been supported by Cheeseburn and the Gillian Dickinson Trust. 1.13 I would estimate that I have given over 100 presentations and academic talks about public art commissioning over the last 20 years. Key presentations include: Americans for the Arts, Las Vegas 2007; Angel of the North 10 Years on, Gateshead 2008; Art Beijing 2015; Ullens Contemporary Art, Beijing 2018; and Chanchun Earth Art Awards China 2019. 1.14 Recent academic presentations in 2019 include: ‘Exploring Modern Scottish Sculpture’, Marchmont House, Scotland; and talks at Xiamen University, Hong Kong Baptist 3 University, and Changhun. 1.15 The Grainger Town project where I curated the sculpture programme received an EU Design Regeneration Award. A building in Norwich where I led arts strategy received a European Design Award in 2018. In 2020 I led the commissioning programme for a housing project in Sheffield which has received a Development of Year award. 1.16 My evidence is submitted on behalf of Viscount Devonport (“the Appellant”) in support of his appeal against Northumberland County Council’s (“the Council”) refusal of an application for the following development: ‘Construction of a publicly accessible landmark, commissioned to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II and the Commonwealth’ (“the Development”), on land at Cold Law Kirkwhelpington Northumberland (“the Appeal Site”). 1.17 In 2017 I was approached by the Appellant to develop a brief for an Elizabeth Landmark at the Appeal Site. Since then I have managed the artistic development of the project including the curatorial research and shortlisting of artists, supporting artists to undertake site visits and develop proposals, five exhibitions of artists proposals, press and publicity and identifying the professional team who made the planning application in 2019. 1.18 I confirm that the evidence which I have prepared and provide for this public inquiry in this proof of evidence is true and that the opinions expressed are my true and professional opinions. 4 2 SCOPE OF EVIDENCE 2.1 My evidence deals with the following: (a) the pedigree of landmark arts projects both in the Borders/North-East and, more specifically, Northumberland; (b) my involvement with the Appellant in understanding and developing his brief for commissioning a sculpture on the Appeal Site; (c) my involvement in procuring responses to the Appellant's brief; (d) an overview of the project; and (e) a summary of the important benefits that I consider the Development will deliver. 2.2 My evidence should be read in conjunction with the proof of evidence of the artist of the sculpture, Mr Simon Hitchens who addresses the evolution and detail of his design of the Development. 2.3 My evidence is structured as follows: (a) Section 3 sets out context for public art initiatives in the North-East and Northumberland; (b) Section 4 sets out the background to my involvement in, and the evolution of, the design brief and the procurement of design proposals in response to it; (c) Section 5 sets out: (i) the selection process which ultimately resulted in the Development; and (ii) an overview of the response of the Development to the above context, including a summary of the benefits that it would deliver; and (d) Section 6 summarises my evidence and sets out my overall conclusions. 5 3 THE CONTEXT FOR PUBLIC ART IN THE REGION 3.1 The north eastern region has a long-standing history of commissioning public art and securing the benefits it can deliver which come to be appreciated by future generations. That is despite considerable local hostility and opposition that such projects often engender at the outset often based upon a misunderstanding of how inspiring and uplifting such sculpture becomes for everyone, including in particular those who live in the area. 3.2 Gateshead began the idea of stimulating public art in the region by getting artists involved in regeneration projects in the 1980s. In 1990 the Gateshead Garden Festival commissioned over 100 artworks and opened up a debate around how landscapes and public realm can be transformed by public art. 3.3 In 1996 the North-East hosted a ‘Year of Visual Arts’ which showcased bold ideas for new arts buildings (such as SAGE and Baltic) and a number of large-scale public artworks including TRAIN in Darlington and Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North.