Public Art - Case Studies
We love providing work for Public Art spaces and have been doing so since 2015. We've work all over the UK, in a variety of places, including new property developments and Royal Castles.
We enjoy projects that involve community engagement and we're experienced in devising and delivering creative workshops. More and more of our artistic practice involves Public Art projects and so we thought we would highlight some of the projects here: our first, our most famous and a link to our most recent.
Site specific Public Realm work provides us with the scope to engage communities and improve outcomes. Work that is informed by community engagement feels to have greater impact in a space and engenders a real sense of ownership and acceptance.
Ty Mawr Country Park, Wrexham 2015
Our first ever project that wasn't destined for a private space, we submitted a proposal for this large project and, after being shortlisted and undergoing an interview process, won the tender. The brief was to create sculptural pieces to lead people around the Park and ensure a better visitor experience. The Park suffered from a lack of signage and ways for people to enagage artistically. All the work needed to be site specific and inspired by the area and we needed to include a bench as part of the trail.
Rob created a community engagement programme that he rolled out through 3 local schools and a community group. The programme involved a guided nature walk around the site followed by a classroom session. We believe that constraints kill creativity and so all our engagements run with a loose framework, are not dependent on ability and allow for trial and error and an element of free "play".
This framework enabled the participants to make some valuable observations during the walk and collect found natural materials to use in the classroom session. This was in the form of clay sculpture, incorporating the items, and some natural printing involving succulent plants, fabric and a hammer (oh the noise!). All the work was inspired by the interactions with the park during the walk.
Altogether Rob engaged 110 people, children and adults, in the sessions. Once the sessions were complete we used the finished work of the participants to provide inspiration for the designs. As well as artistically viable signage and sculpture the Park needed an intervention to mark the edge of the park from some nearby municipal playing fields. The work had to be permeable to vehicles and maintenance teams but provide a visual clue that the park ended.
After our designs were accepted we set about sourcing some local grown timber for creating the multiple pieces of work (circa 15). National Resource Wales were clearing some Sequoia that those wonderful Victorians had mis planted in a woodland and we had this, plus some Herefordshire Oak, delivered to site. We created the work on site, allowing further public engagement in the process.
The installation of the pieces was handled by a third party contactor as our backs were feeling the heat after a long, heavy amount of sculpting. They were secured into the ground using postfix, brackets or steel rods and resin (where this was feasible).
We handled all aspects of this project and produced method statements and risk assessments at every stage. The finished work really added to the site and improved the visitor experience. We completed the project on budget.
Macbeth Sculpture Trail, Glamis Castle 2017
Glamis Castle contacted us to ask if we would like to create a sculpture trail to improve their outside visitor offering. They wanted a series of life-size sculptures inspired by Macbeth, the Shakespeare play, to lead people through their Pinetum. Our initial designs, based around the story from Lady Macbeth's perspective, weren't what they were looking for so we redesigned a more traditional series of interventions. We wanted to capture the turmoil and mental struggles that are a theme of the play and so added a swirling maelstrom to each piece, depending on the scene. This was sculpted as a cascade of splintered wood around the figures.
We sculpted the pieces on site and was involved in a great deal of publicity for the work, both nationally and locally. Glamis Castle was the home of the Queen Mother and so there was a buzz around the project. All the work was created from timber from the Castle's estate. The Castles garden team handled the installation with Rob's supervision and we were part of an opening ceremony involving the National Press and the Queen's Cousin.
Alongside the sculpting, Rob designed and delivered creative workshops with 3 different local schools. The children were encouraged to sculpt scenes from their favourite literature. The sessions were very well received with one Head Teacher commenting that if ever we were passing by again she would have no qualms in Rob taking a few arts sessions with the school.
We completed the project on budget and the trail helped increase visitors to the garden by over 50%. Pictures of the 3 Witches went viral, through our social media channels, and were seen by well over 4 million people worldwide (and counting).
Read about our Framework Knitters Public Art for Stonewater Ltd here https://www.neithartandsculpture.co.uk/blog/as-poor-as-a-stockinger
