Just how 'public' is Public Art? How much influence do you have over what lands up where you live? What do everyday people really like? The Big Art Project asks all the big questions about Public Art.
Jaume Plensa's Dream on the former colliery site at St.Helens has become a local landmark and is popular with residents
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See Latest News for updates on the Big Art Project at the Isle of Mull and Cardigan sites.
Can the public be trusted to choose public art?: View video extracts from the Art Fund's Big Art debate chaired by Jon Snow with a panel of artists and other experts at the RSA, London on 20 May 2009.
A sense of possibilities: In two short videos, Big Art Project selectors Gus Casely-Hayford and Peter Jenkinson reflect on journeys of discovery and an increased sense of the potential of truly public art.
Big Art trail: young members of the project team in Burnley scripted, filmed and cut their own trails for the Channel 4 series broadcast in May 2009.
A dream fulfilled: Dream, Jaume Plensa's new landmark sculpture on the site of a former colliery in St.Helens, has been shortlisted for the Marsh Sculpture Prize, an award for the best public sculpture of the year. The project was lead by a group of ex-miners.
The Big Art Project is an ambitious public art commissioning initiative from Channel 4, supported by Arts Council England and The Art Fund.
Communities around the country have seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get involved in the commissioning of a work of art. And not just any work of art. A big work of art. A big, significant work of public art.
The current state of play on the Channel 4 Big Art Project across the UK:
- Seven sites (nominated by the public) have been selected.
- The winning Site Nominators engaged substantially and actively with the process of commissioning and creating big art works on these sites.
- Artists and curators were appointed for each site and are working with the Nominators. In each area progress towards a new public artwork developed differently, shaped and driven by the local community.
- The Big Art Project explores and debates the questions around Public Art in Britain today.
- The entire progress of the project has been documented in a major four-part series broadcast on Channel 4 in May 2009.
Antony Gormley: Angel of the North, Mark Wallinger: Ecce Homo and Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty
What is Public Art? Find out more.
To view different examples of Public Art, visit the Big Art gallery.
Tony Cragg: Declination and Luke Jerram: Sky Orchestra
Photo credits (clockwise from top left):
Anthony Gormley Angel of the North (courtesy Gateshead Council, ©the artist and Jay Joplin/White Cube)
Mark Wallinger Ecce Homo (courtesy Anthony Reynolds Gallery, © the artist)
Robert Smithson Spiral Jetty (© Estate of Robert Smithson/licensed by VAGA New York NY. Courtesy James Cohan Gallery NY. Collection DIA Center for the Arts NY. Photo: G Gorgoni)
Luke Jerram Sky Orchestra (courtesy Luke Jerram Photo: Thierry Grobet)
Tony Cragg Declination (courtesy Lisson Gallery and the artist)
