It is an increase in community asset.
It is a symbol of a city’s integrity.
It is a physical manifestation of a community’s responsibility to itself and its citizens.
Each of these statements could be used as arguments for a community’s investment in public art. Generally speaking, however, they are the words you would hear coming from the lips of an arts administrator, curator or councilman; not necessarily from an individual who lives among the piece of public art in question. So often there seems to be a divide between artists, those involved in the arts and “The Public”. For those on the arts side of things, The Public are thought of as having no sensibilities or understanding of art, yet are expected to appreciate a sculpture or installation suddenly dropped into the center of their living space.
In an effort to close the gap between those who advocate for and create public art and the citizens of the towns where the art is installed, the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 sought to affect change through an unlikely method: a reality show.
Those of us in North America who watch prime time television have some fairly definite associations with the words “reality television.” The phrase brings to mind visions of talent-less, fame-hungry men and women cheerfully dishing out the most intimate details of their lives, or vying to win the affections of a relative stranger all in the hopes of achieving a cash prize and some kind of stardom. In light of those connections I found Channel 4’s The Big Art Project to be groundbreaking and utterly refreshing.
In October of 2005, Channel 4 asked the citizens of the United Kingdom whether they would like to be involved in the process of developing and installing a new piece of public artwork in the town in which they live. The answer was a resounding “yes.” People responded, nominating sites, and a committee dedicated to selecting the proposals that would move forward began traveling the country, visiting the sites speaking with local residents and ultimately deciding on seven spots to be home to a brand new piece of commissioned public art.
Seeking to close the gap between artists, art and the people who actually experience public art every day, the Project provides a unique opportunity for citizens to decide what kind of artistic expression they feel belongs in their community. As opposed to the traditional top-down approach—artists and public officials decide where a new piece of public art will go, who will make it and the public either likes it or not—this is a decidedly bottom-up method, allowing the residents of the area to discuss the proposed work with the artist in an effort to come up with something that will transform the feeling of their community and give them a sense of empowerment about their tiny corner of the world.
The seven sites, scattered about the United Kingdom each had its own story. The common thread uniting each project, however, was the belief that a collaborative project between artist and community would have the power to change the area; both in terms of outsider’s perception and the experience of the area’s residents.
Throughout the process, references were made to Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North- a towering sculpture of an angel, wings outstretched sitting atop a hillside of a former mining community along the A1 highway. One of the sites selected for The Big Art Project had a very similar history: the former former Sutton Manor Colliery in the community of St. Helens. The space is an open area at the very top of the former pit, where the land rises to a soft hill above the Lancashire plain. This place was a mining community for over 400 years and the citizens feel a tremendous attachment to its history.
The artist selected for the site was Barcelona-born Jaume Plensa. Plensa is no stranger to public art, and his most famous piece The Crown Fountain’s in Chicago’s Millennium Park, have a community aspect as well. Two large “towers” face each other across a very shallow pool of water. The towers play constant loops of video portraiture taken of 1000 Chicago residents while visitors can splash through the fountains of water that shoot out of the glass blocks of which the towers are built.
Initially Plensa had envisioned a large sculpture of a miner’s lamp in order to commemorate the years of hard work that had taken place at the site and have given the region its identity. However the community envisioned something very different. “We didn’t want it. There are lots of miners’ lamps and memorials all over the country. We wanted a piece of modern art.” This quote is from a former electrical engineer from St. Helens who described how the community was interested not in miring themselves in the past, but in using this opportunity to commission a piece of artwork that would evoke a sense of pride and hope for the future of this community.
The result is Dream.
Almost 66 feet tall and weighing 500 tons, Dream appears from a distance to be an oblong, alabaster oval. Closer inspection reveals it to be the graceful description of a young woman’s head, eyes closed, face calm and serene as though in deep meditation. It is a triumph for the community who feel that their voices were heard and their input considered throughout the process. An ex miner and resident of the St. Helens area had this to say: “When we were approached over two years ago to nominate the site, the ex-miners of the focus group and I would have been happy to just have a memorial erected on the site. Now, following our Big Art journey, our eyes have been opened to what art can mean to a community. Consequently we wanted something that was more than just another mining monument…. I believe we have a piece of artwork that not only reflects the past heritage of the site but also projects it into the future. Sutton Manor Colliery may never produce coal again, but now, because of this wonderful piece of artwork, its soul and its millions of memories will live on.”
