Public Art Workshop, University of Leeds - 27th January 2016

Shamelessly stolen from @Zebracki, but on the other hand he didn't ask permission to take it. I'm in the stripes.

 

I’d been to some of the public art talks held  at the University of Leeds over the Summer and enjoyed them, finding them interesting, informative and thought-provoking, so I wanted to know what was happening next.  

This year’s theme is going to be “textiles”, as it is the 50^th anniversary of Mitzi Cunliffe’s sculpture on the Man-made Fibres building at the University. There will be knitting and weaving interventions, and canopies to be made across campus, so hopefully a chance toget involved. There will also be sound and literary responses and there are a number of partners e.g. Leeds Wool Festival, Leeds Carnival.  

The afternoon featured an interesting talk from Dr Sarah Shaglosky of the University of Warwick. Warwick was one of the 1960s universities built to satisfy the post-war desire to allow education for all (heady days!). Art was included in it as an integral part of the design, and coincidentally one of its pieces, 3B Series 1, had just been listed (also coincidentally, its artist is Bernard Schottlander, an alumnus of Leeds College of Art). So Warwick is very different to Leeds on many levels. At Warwick the artwork is part of its fabric, its strategy. They have over 900 objects on open display throughout their buildings.. At Leeds there is student engagement with some of the works on campus, but much less with others, and it is rare to see members of the public wandering around admiring the work.  It was agreed that the campus in both cases still represents a physical and psychological barrier to accessing the work.

 

3B Series 1 in Rootes Hall Square (aka Red Square), University of Warwick

After a group discussion generating ideas for future themes and trails across campus, I chatted to one of my fellow attendees as we walked away from the event. It was an interesting discussion which revealed tensions I was unaware of between the faculties and the Library, the latter having ownership of the public art project. It is sad, but inevitable, that these silos occur in an institution of that size. I enjoyed the afternoon but I wasn’t sure my viewpoint was taken seriously during the discussions so I will think again about taking time out to attend such an event in the future.