We commission, curate and produce site responsive public art, develop cultural strategies and wider creative collaborations to inspire engagement with cultural stories. Based in the South West of England, we are official Producing Partners of Art and the Public Realm, an ArtsMark Partner Organisation and proud Active Members of the Gallery Climate Coalition.

We devise insight led strategy to transform environments, allowing artists to enrich public life and create a cultural legacy for the future. Working at different scales from integrated art + design for complex urban developments to site specific performance, by harnessing site responsive, critically engaged thinking, we develop inspiring work that creates communities, activates place and inspires meaningful change. Whether the outcomes are temporary or permanent, all projects are derived from the experience of an engagement with place and the ideas that formed them. 

• Commissioning site and situation-specific works with leading contemporary artists who move the needle, presenting ideas which consider the world in new ways

• Joining forces with and connecting practitioners across disciplines including government, universities, institutions and cultural organisations

• Devising purpose driven programming and commentary including lectures, engagement programmes and research

WHAT WE DO

• Devise strategy and cultural placemaking programme development - formulating methodologies to deliver engaging, critical content for diverse audiences

• Broker partnerships to deliver inclusive projects and embed culture into existing and new communities

• Artist, commercial, government and self initiated projects

• Integrated art and design, masterplans, per cent for art, DA for diverse sites and contexts (interior, exterior, landscape) enriching architectural strategies while harmoniously enhancing brand and wider urban design goals

• Art strategy, including those to comply with planning conditions - significant experience with highly complex commissioning models

• Integrated programmes for project extension, audience engagement and meaningful innovation

• Funding, budget negotiation, management and control (including value engineering strategies)

• Fabrication and production in addition to maintenance plans

• Marketing communications, events and publicity, documentation and reporting

For developers, local authorities or investors, public art provides value, cultural investment and a connection with local communities that remains something of an undervalued force. Being the heart of the experience economy, public art can create bespoke meeting places or landmarks, aid orientation and enhance urban design goals. More importantly, it can successfully engage and build loyalty with the people who live, use and benefit from the places we occupy. 

Since 2017 we have developed a series of permanent contemporary art commissions for primary schools in Bristol, which is the most significant programme of commissioning art for educational contexts in the country. In 2020 we launched CONFLUENCE, an international programme in partnership with The British Council as part of its Official 21-22 Season.

“What I’ve found is that if we think of development as something that’s just about bricks and mortar, then it’s a very short story. Developers need to remind themselves that they’re partners, allies and brothers”

THEASTER GATES

Header and supportive image: © Toby Paterson. Poised Array, Glasgow, 2007; A Shift in Perspective, Bristol 2019