Big Things on the Beach
Background by Caroline Muirhead21 Aug 2007
- Aims of the project
- Public artworks for the beach front
- Big things on the beach public art course
- Links to related sites of interest
- Credits
Aims of the project
Four years ago a group of residents living in Edinburgh’s seaside community of Portobello, established a charitable trust called Big Things on the Beach (BTOTB). Part of the trust’s aims were to “organise activities that would stimulate and encourage creative activity by local people of all ages and develop an appreciation of the contribution that public art can make to the life of the communityâ€. In addition to this, the hopes were these activities would “enhance the experience of visiting Portobello Beach both for the local community and for visitors†contributing “to the revitalisation of the beachfrontâ€.
Public artworks for the beach front
From 2004-2005, BTOTB organised two temporary public artworks for the beachfront. The first, Blue Moon in 2004, was a partnership with the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and involved artist Renny Nisbet in the creation of a Tidal Artwork. The second in 2005 Progression, involved artists Euan Harvey and Malcolm Hosie’s installation of five large wind-socks or banners. Positioned on 8.5M poles sited along the beach, the designs on these giant structures made reference to Portobello’s past industries.
In order to develop this work further, Caroline Muirhead was appointed in 2006 as public arts development worker for Big Things on the Beach. Her role was to “develop and run a Public Art Commissioning Course for local residentsâ€, providing opportunity for local people to learn about aspects of Public Art, the commissioning process and how to implement it. As part of a two year programme, BTOTB will deliver two courses from 2006-08. Caroline provides some background to the work that has been developed by the course over the past year.
Group at Morecambe seafront
Group visit to the Tern Project, Morecambe
WONDER by Hill Jephson Robb
Visitors to Portobello beach using WONDER as a viewpoint
Big things on the beach public art course
The main aims of the course were to give residents of Portobello the opportunity to gain broader knowledge and understanding of what public art is and to develop some of the skills required to implement the commissioning process for a piece of public art.
The course was widely advertised throughout the local community by means of posters and an established BTOTB mailing list. Those interested in participating attended a public open evening to find out more about BTOTB and the course, and those interested in signing up for the programme were given a course registration form and information sheet which detailed exactly what was involved in their participation. As a result of this, fourteen participants were finally enrolled.
The course ran from September 2006 until May 2007 and throughout the course, participants – who eventually formed a public art commissioning group – learned about some of the forms that Public Art can take, as well as some of what’s involved in the commissioning process and its implementation. Sessions included invited speakers who talked about their experience of the commissioning process from planning, development and installation of artworks to Health & Safety, legal and contractual issues amongst different Councils and funders. Some of the Public Artists involved in the course included Alison Unsworth, Marion Smith and David Harding, as well as Kate Gray, an Edinburgh based gallery curator. Speakers from other community based Public Art initiatives also shared their experiences, for example the Raploch Regeneration Group and course participants also travelled to places such as Belfast, Blackpool, Morecambe and Newcastle to see and experience a variety of Public Art in situ.
As a consequence of the course, the group acted as public art commissioners, and were actively involved in writing the creative brief to commission a further piece of temporary Public Art for Portobello beach during the summer of 2007. Thirty three applications were received from which the group short-listed three artists who were give a small fee and commissioned to develop their proposals for interview. All three short-listed artists were asked to present their ideas to the group and were then interviewed by some of the course participants. In April 2007 Scottish artist, Hill Jephson Robb was commissioned to realise his proposal WONDER.
WONDER consisted of three large pyramids (with the tallest standing some 4 metres high), made from thousands of Hessian sandbags – one for every household in Portobello. These were painstakingly filled and built up on site, with visitors to the beach invited and encouraged to participate in the building process. The work was ‘officially launched’ on the summer solstice, and involved a public celebration on Portobello beachfront. The artwork was initially planned to be in situ until December 2007, however, due to a high level of community interaction with the work, was de-commissioned at an earlier stage. The second Public Art course began in August and will run until May 2008.
Download Hill Jephson Robb’s proposal.
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