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Engaging with Heritage Sites Engaging With Heritage Sites Artists are forever looking for inspiration. For a decade and a half artists and heritage organizations such as the National Trust and English Heritage have helped to solve the problem through numerous groundbreaking exhibitions and interventions in a wide variety of their protected properties and spaces. By Ruth Garde 38 WORLD SCULPTURE NEWS AUTUMN 2013 he migration of art from within the gallery to outside it is now well established with a rich history and pedigree. Multiple artistic genres, including land art, Tpublic art, site-specific art, or happenings, have been deployed over the past 60 years with a host of intentions, be they to challenge art world orthodoxies and bringing art to a different audience or to respond to a different environment. The 1980s and 1990s saw artists colonizing ex-industrial sites and warehouses, actively engaging with the singular demands of those particular spaces. During the past 15 years, a new di- mension has been added to these interven- tions, with artists increasingly responding to the rich source material found in heri- tage sites, taking up residence in historic houses, palaces, castles, and the landscape around them. In Great Britain, where the Geraldine Pilgrim, Dreams of a Winter Night, from ExtraOrdinary Measures, 2010, English Heritage, significance of both the built and natural Belsay Hall Castle and Gardens. Image: Courtesy of English Heritage. heritage of its cultural tradition is so keenly felt, this has led to many exhibitions and commissions produced in partnership with large-scale heritage organizations such as the National Trust, English Heritage, and the Forestry Commission, as well as individual, privately managed sites. The National Trust’s “Trust New Art” program, initiated in 2009 in partnership with the Arts Council England (the national de- velopment agency for the arts) is indica- tive of the increasing recognition of the rewards of such collaborations, and of a growing trend to incorporate such pro- grams within a strategic policy. Globally familiar artists such as Yinka Shonibare, Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley, Andy Goldsworthy, and Cornelia Parker have all had work exhibited or commissioned for historic sites across England, both National Trust and private alike, the latter including such hugely popular sites as Harewood in Yorkshire and Kensington Shelley Fox, installation in Study with recycled laundry and sound archival work by Scanner, from Fashion Palace in London. at Belsay, 2004, English Heritage, Belsay Hall Castle and Gardens. Image: Courtesy of English Heritage. This collaborative serves that the splendor and trend has gained momentum historical resonances of the from ventures that sprang up building proved an irresistible during the 1990s. One key proposition for the high-profile collaboration, now regarded names whom she approached: as a trailblazer, was initiated “When artists actually visited by English Heritage in 1995 at the site, I knew they would Belsay Hall, an empty 19th- agree to take part.” century neo-classical mansion The 2000 show, in Northumberland, whose Sitooteries, included architec- spaces were filled with site- tural installations from Julian specific commissions ranging Opie, Thomas Heatherwick, from contemporary interior and Foster & Partners amongst design (1996), architectural its 12 ‘pavilions.’ Fashion at structures (2000), and fashion- Belsay (2004) saw installations inspired installations (2004). ranging from a crystal horse Judith King, director of arts by Stella McCartney to a cos- and heritage and curator of Above: Stella McCartney, Lucky Spot, Swarovski crystals, from Fashion at tume and painting installation Belsay, 2004, English Heritage, Belsay Hall Castle and Gardens. Previous page: the Belsay Hall exhibitions Thomas Heatherwick’s Hairy Sitooterie, from Sitooterie, 2000, at Belsay. by Alexander McQueen and between 1996 and 2010, ob- Both images: Courtesy of English Heritage. Richard Gray, and an interior AUTUMN 2013 WORLD SCULPTURE NEWS 39 ‘picnic’ installation by Paul Smith England (ACE) and the Trust’s with seating, plants, and a wireless re-evaluation of its relationship to radio. Though a hugely successful contemporary art coincided with program with high profile col- that of ACE’s, who in the mid- laborators and substantial visitor 2000s had identified finding new numbers as well as wide media contexts for contemporary art as a coverage, English Heritage has not strategy to be pursued. This dove- pursued the Belsay Hall model: it tailed neatly with the arts scene has no continuing contemporary of the time, and the opportunities art scheme. that artists were searching for out- side the traditional gallery setting. he National Trust’s long With ACE’s support (in the shape association with living of an agreement to work along artists, stretching back to certain mutually agreed principles the foundation of many and objectives,) the National Trust of its properties (some embarked on an ambitious pro- Tindeed built as ‘palaces of art’ to gram with the aim of commission- house then contemporary art col- ing high-quality art that resonates lections,) was formalized in 2009 with and responds to place. Tom as part of the Trust’s strategic pro- Freshwater, the Trust’s contem- gramming in the shape of “Trust porary art program manager, New Art.” Whilst the organization explains that as an organization had a handful of collaborations criticized in the past for allowing with contemporary artists through- their properties to become “pick- out the 1990s to the mid-2000s, it led in aspic,” the contemporary was not planned strategically on art program also coheres with an infrastructural level. But such the Trust’s stated strategic aim of Brass Art, Rooted and Established, selective laser sintering, nylon projects caught the eye of fund- prime part, from Tell it to the Trees, Meadow Arts commission 2009. “Bringing places to life.” ing bodies such as Arts Council Image: Courtesy of Meadow Arts. Peter Heslip, director of Susie MacMurray, Herd, cut antlers, silk velvet, and ply, from House of Beasts. Reena Saini Kallat, Memoria Corona, ivory duco paint, FRP, from Shakti. Work Meadow Arts commission 2011. Image: Courtesy of Meadow Arts. shown courtesy the Frank Cohen Collection. Image: Stefan Handy for Meadow Arts. 40 WORLD SCULPTURE NEWS AUTUMN 2013 visual arts at ACE, identifies three prin- ciple strategic aims of the Trust New Art program. The first is to provide new opportunities for artists to work in new settings. The second is about reaching new audiences to engage with and ap- preciate art. The National Trust, being the largest United Kingdom landowner and one of the largest heritage organiza- tions in Europe with over 300 rural and urban properties, has the infrastructure to reach far more visitors and different, often non-traditional arts audiences. Like public art, art in heritage settings reach people beyond the gallery walls, but in Heslip’s view the difference with the latter is that visitors are often looking to learn something, seeking meaning from a con- text. Heritage is about “people, the story of our lives” and artists, “society’s expert meaning makers,” are thus ideally placed to interpret these sites. Tom Freshwater adds that artistic interventions in heritage sites further connects people to a place, offering “a lateral, not literal, interpretation” that provokes a response connected to a place but not simply communicating facts about it. The third concerns sharing resources at a time of austerity and huge pressures on public funding. Collaborations and partner- ships of this kind can be an economically viable means of reaching new and wider audiences. The realization by heritage orga- nizations and agencies that the arts are a key tool in animating the environments for which they care and in engaging the public who use them (and increasing awareness among those who do not) means oppor- tunities for artists to engage with heritage sites are now flourishing. With such op- portunities come rewards and challenges. Philippa Lawrence, Bound, Croft, cotton wrapped deceased oak, from Tell it to the Trees, Meadow Arts nevitably, an historic site brings prac- commission 2009. Image: Courtesy of Meadow Arts. tical and logistical considerations of its own, which vary from site to Charmant notes that working directly language to speak to the business needs site. These encompass conservation with an individual host venue permits a of large-scale organizations, a language requirements, the fragility of the his- high degree of flexibility and autonomy. relating the art project to audience, visitor toricI fabric of a building or its contents, These can get lost within the bureaucratic experience, income, and profile. It can health and safety, visitor flow and access. intricacies of larger organizations, which take time, she reflects, for large heritage However, Anne de Charmant, director are often rendered more complex still by organizations to take what they perceive and curator of Meadow Arts, a UK-based internal change or staff turnover. as risks with “challenging” or “difficult” commissioning agency, observes that such Judith King echoes this sentiment, art, especially where the organizations limitations can make the project more arguing that reaching the right people are more concerned with conservation intriguing and ultimately more creative. within the heritage organization is cru- and site management, and who may lack She adds that working with large-scale or- cial, and that it
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