Manifesto of Possibilities
From BuildingculturesWiki
A Manifesto of Possibilities: Commissioning Public Art in the Urban Environment
Following on from the Birkbeck ‘Building Cultures’ Seminar Series, Art and OUR City in May 2006 and the action workshop, Building Cultures 2: A Manifesto of Possibilities in February 2007, this manifesto in progress takes forward issues raised by panellists, audience members, and workshop participants. Through this manifesto we are developing significant recommendations to present to the Arts Council England, DCMS, Mayor of London and other central players in policy making and those promoting the role of art in urban change.
Increasingly, people working in diverse aspects of contemporary urban society, from developers to park wardens, are turning to the arts for new ideas, regeneration, problem solving and community bridge building. The employment of artists in these (traditionally non-cultural) fields, where there are other non-art issues and agendas at stake, is becoming the norm. This manifesto is a chance for you to address the uncertainties of commissioning art in areas of urban change, discuss crucial concerns, and devise tangible solutions, knowing they will be presented to key decision makers.
A request for responses to the Manifesto.
Please read the following six parts of the Manifesto and make your comments, suggestions and responses in the discussion page. The wiki is really simple to use:
1. Create an account by clicking on the link in the top-right corner
2. Once you've logged in and would like to make a comment, suggestion or add a link, clicking on the blue 'discussion tab' above and follow the instructions. Please author your comments.
The Manifesto itself is not open to editing as we want all participants to see and respond to the same version.
The Manifesto was published as a poster in November 2007. If you would like a copy, please contact Marjorie Hoek on m.hoek@bbk.ac.uk
Cameron Cartiere and Sophie Hope.
- Read a report on the Building Cultures Seminar Series, Art and OUR City in May 2006 by Cameron Cartiere
- Read an introduction to Building Cultures 2: A Manifesto of Possibilities (February 2007) by Sophie Hope
- Read a report on the Action Workshop Building Cultures 2: A Manifesto of Possibilities in February 2007 by Rosemary Shirley
Contents |
THE MANIFESTO OF POSSIBILITIES
The Commissioning Process
- Commissioning organisations should agree on a strategic public art plan or policy that outlines why they are commissioning public art before commissions are considered. Commitment and support for public art should be demonstrated throughout the organisation. These plans/policies should serve as guidelines but not dictate the content or stifle the creative process.
- Public and private regeneration bodies should invest in training and guidance for commissioners, planners, communities and artists about the different ways of working with art in the public realm.
- There is no definitive or single ‘right way’ of creating art for the public realm. The commissioning process needs to recognise the diversity in approaches, interests and skills of artists and reflect this in the aims and objectives of the project.
- Clarify at which stage of the planning process artists should be employed. Acknowledge that some artists prefer to be involved at an early stage.
- Acknowledge the various partners and stakeholders involved and how they will work together (eg. architects, planners, artists, educators, other professionals, community members). The roles and responsibilities of all those involved in the commissioning process should be clarified from the onset and need to be expressed in a universally acknowledged and accepted form of contract.
- Public art is not a universal problem solver for poor urban design or a magic formula to solve social injustice. It needs to be recognised that good public art is not a single substitute for good public policy.
- Public art commissions should be driven by the unique context of a given project rather than overly prescriptive or generic briefs.
- The commissioning process should allow room for and learn from rejection, refusal and negation of the commission by artists and other stakeholders.
The Artist
- If specific proposals for public art are requested in advance, artists should be paid appropriately for the time spent on site visits and developing the proposal.
- While a request for qualifications is an excellent process to narrow the field of potential artists in an open call, the review of previously completed work should not be the only basis for developing a public art project. Where appropriate, sponsoring opportunities for ‘first time’ public artists will allow for the continued expansion of creativity and artistic vision within the public art field.
- Assumptions should not be made about artists based solely on previous work. Commissioners should remain open to the possibilities of artists developing new approaches and creating original works.
- Artists working in the public realm need to be acknowledged and paid as professionals on a par with other members of the team, such as architects and designers.
The Curator
- The curatorial role in public art commissioning needs to be recognised as supporting, co-producing and overseeing negotiation and artistic vision, from the concept to completion of a public art project.
- Curators need to have access to funders and stakeholders to develop a working relationship throughout the commissioning process. The curator can ensure a balance is struck between risk and risk management enabling innovation and experimentation.
- Investment in curatorial training and mentoring of public art administrators will help to facilitate creativity throughout the administrative process. Simply changing one’s title from ‘administrator’ to ‘curator’ is not an acceptable substitute for proper training and curatorial expertise.
The Community
- ‘The community’ (or ‘the public’) is not a uniform group of people. Every project based in a community needs to be aware of the specific audiences the work is intended for. These audiences may be particular age groups, ethnicities, economic backgrounds and/or communities of interest. Acknowledgement of who the public artwork or project is for and why should be transparent. There may be different audiences at different stages of the project.
- Artists work with communities but not subsequently for them. The role of the artist is not necessarily to create communities but rather to make connections.
- Recognise the time it takes for communities to become participants in the public art process and the value of sustaining long-term relationships and networks.
The Art
- Public art is NOT a single art form. There are a multitude of approaches, methods and motivations for public art. Acknowledge and celebrate the depth and breadth of the field.
- There is cultural value in commissioning temporary public art. The effects can be as dramatic, significant and sustainable as permanent works.
- Public art is often placed in the precarious position of trying to address all stakeholders’ agendas and needs – recognise the limitations and possibilities of public art. Be ambitious but realistic. Remember, "context remains half the work" (originally stated by the Artists Placement Group in the 1960s).
The Evaluation
- Evaluation should be integral to the process, embedded from the beginning, providing productive suggestions as a qualitative tool and NOT a pre-emptive checklist.
- Acknowledge the varying notions of risk. Identify the different criteria for success and allow time for understanding these differences.
- Evaluation should be transparent and honest.
- Evaluation should recognise failure and the potential lessons that can be learned.
- The evaluation process is not limited to the art; it can also include the stakeholders and the commissioning process itself.
- Current timescales for evaluation are too short. There is a need for long-term investment in evaluation. The sustained ‘value’ of public art needs time to reveal itself. This is a process that may take years. Therefore the aim of evaluation should be informative rather than reactionary.
- Evaluation is most effective when information is disseminated and shared. Commissioners should make publicly available evaluations, debates and archives of public art projects.
This is the end of the Manifesto of Possibilities. Please make your comments, additions and suggestions on the discussion page by clicking the tab at the top of this page and following the instructions.
Public art resources and links
This list is not exhaustive, please add links to other relevant agencies and organisations in the discussion page and we will include them here.
An architecture centre with events and educational projects.
Art and Architecture promotes the collaboration between Art, Architecture and Landscape for a more stimulating environment. The site includes the society’s history, newsletter, lecture programme, Member Network, and a searchable International Practitioners Network database.
Magazine for public art collaboration - contemporary urban culture – architecture
European portal for public art, provides access to a vast field of information about contemporary public art and its current developments throughout the world.
BURA promotes Best Practice in regeneration, and is the leading independent organisation for Urban Regeneration in the UK.
The government's advisor on architecture, urban design and public space.
The IDeA works in partnership with all councils, to enhance the performance of the best, accelerate the speed of improvement of the rest, and develop the sector as a whole.
ixia (formerly Public Art Forum) is the national body for the support and development of public art practice in the UK.
This online resource provides information and links for art in urban design, art in the environment, art in architecture, public art commissions, projects, and competitions.
Americans for the Arts' Public Art Network (PAN) develops professional services for the broad array of individuals and organizations engaged in the expanding field of public art.
This resource provides a wealth of information on how artists and creative activity can contribute to the built and natural environment, regeneration initiatives, sustainable development, architecture and urban design.
The Public Art Research Archive is based at Sheffield Hallam University. It includes academic papers, brief case studies of public art in Sheffield and an extensive links page.
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association works to record, preserve, promote and provide information about public sculpture in Britain. The association includes the SOS campaign (Save our Sculpture) and the National Recording Project which has an extensive online data base of images.
The regeneration portal for the UK.
An online resource of sculpture parks and gardens from around the world. In addition to the directory, the site features a gallery of images from numerous parks, a news section, and a interesting links and resource section.
London Based Agencies
Links to other manifestos
An exhaustive Wikipedia entry containing links to over forty art manifestos from the 20th and 21st Century, from Dada, to Gilbert and George, to Donna Harroway.
The Academy of Urbanism is a high level, cross-sector group of individuals from a wide range of disciplines, brought together to champion the cause of good quality urbanism throughout Great Britain and Ireland. They believe that the practice of good urbanism can establish a high quality of living, nurture a healthy and creative way of life, support economic, social, political and cultural activity and deliver robust, distinctive and attractive environments for our villages, towns and cities. Their manifesto can be downloaded as a PDF by following the above link.
The Manifesto Club aims to challenge the cultural trends that restrain and stifle people’s aspirations and initiative. Our aim is to bring together people whose ideas don’t necessarily fit into the politics of left and right, but who share a belief in the potential for developing human beings’ creativity and knowledge.
In 1969, Mierle Laderman Ukeles wrote a manifesto entitled "Maintenance Art—Proposal for an Exhibition," which challenged the delegation of housework to women. In this seminal document of feminist art, Ukeles was attempting to demystify the image of the "housewife" as someone locked into an irretrievable system of dependency.
Taking the form of a manifesto this open letter originated in the USA and offers commentary and recommendations intended to make the partnership between artists and administrators more effective and efficient, resulting in art works that are more evocative of our time and place. The letter can be downloaded as a PDF by following the above link.
A manifesto authored by Visual Arts and Galleries Association (VAGA) for a new cultural and social landscape by 2015. Full statement and list of signatories are downloadable from the above link.
Living Streets is a national charity which has initiated a campaign to “make your local streets worth living in - worth strolling, meeting, shopping, sitting or relaxing in”. Their full manifesto can be accessed via the above link.
Full text downloadable as a PDF from the above link.
Available online by following the above link to Situationist International Online, where a number of other Situationist texts are also archived.
A collection of Futurist Manifestos including: Manifesto of Futurist the Painters, Manifesto of Futurist Architecture and The Art of Noises.
A Collection of Fluxus manifestos written by George Maciunas in the early 1960’s, with a link to a manifesto by Joseph Beuys from 1970.
In its own words: “A kind of avant-garde manifesto writer’s how to manual, which might itself be an avant-garde manifesto of sorts”. Full text available on the London Consortium website, link above.
Written in Mexico in 1997, the mural manifesto talks of public art as “a process of inclusion in which artists and audience interact to create a vision of shared dreams, aspirations and struggles”. The full text can be accessed through the above link.
391 was first published by the poet and artist francis picabia in 1917 and was a bridge between the zürich dadaists, french surrealists, marcel duchamp and others. 391.org continues to experiment and provides a DadaWiki wheremanifestos can be added and commented upon.
Publications
The first anthology of its kind, "Manifesto" features over two hundred artistic and cultural manifestos from a wide range of countries. Included in this collection are texts ranging from Kurt Schwitters's "Cow Manifesto" to those written in the name of well-known movements - imagism, cubism, surrealism, symbolism, vorticism, projectivism - and less well-known ones - lettrism, acmeism, concretism, rayonism.
On February 20th, 1909, a belligerent manifesto announcing the birth of the Futurist movement appeared on the front page of the Paris newspaper "Le Figaro" and had immediate repercussions throughout Europe. The author, a young Italian poet named F.T. Marinetti, demanded that writers and artists reject the classic art of the past and celebrate the dynamic technology of modern city life.
Originally published in 1970 this volume is now in its seventeenth edition. Arranged in chronological order from 1903 to 1963 it is a collection of manifestos from the most influential architects of the first part of the twentieth century.
