Invitation to tender: Public Art Strategy for Exeter

1.    Introduction and context

Exeter City Council, in partnership with Exeter Culture, Liveable Exeter and the wider cultural sector is wanting to create an ambitious Public Art Strategy. Recent developments such as the new Cultural Strategy (2019) and culture being named a priority within Exeter’s future building programme (Liveable Exeter) means it is a very good time to begin consultation on the development of a strategy.

The global pandemic, digitisation and the move to online retail has meant that city centres are swiftly changing. The Liveable Exeter building plan includes the development of 12,000 new homes over 20 years with nine new areas of the city created. The potential for public art to make meaningful change and contribute towards a vibrant city and ecology for artists and organisations makes this an exciting time. Additionally, there are some key learnings from the way in which public monuments have been discussed and dealt with that should be included in forward plans for the development of public art. Exeter City Council has also recently included public art within the Community Infrastructure Levy.

Furthermore, there is a good foundation on which to build culturally. There is a group of organisations and artists in and around the city with expertise on visual and public art and continued work in the public realm. Exeter is strengthening its connections to geographical communities of the city through its Community Builders programme, Wellbeing Exeter and Exeter Connect. Artists and organisations are already working with and through these networks. Visual arts is seeing steady developments with the ongoing Fine Art at Further Education and Higher Education level at Exeter College and the beginning of a new Masters in International Contemporary Art: Curation and Business at the University of Exeter. This creates opportunities for developing talent pipelines.

2.    Deliverables

Within this strategy we are looking for several key principles:

  • Meaningful consultation with the cultural sector, connected sectors and communities;

  • A focus on co-creation and inclusion of/with communities;

  • A commitment to understanding the importance of diversity, equality and inclusion;

  • Help in understanding the many facets of public art (permanent, temporary, playable/fun/functional, varied art form, and so forth);

  • Quality – always striving for the best in terms of process and production;

  • Identity – we want this plan to be specific and unique for Exeter and the surrounding area so a sound knowledge of issues and cultural ecology locally would be very useful.

Ultimately we want some clear outcomes:

  • A clear, ambitious and tangible plan;

  • Clear recommendations for the further development of and opportunities for public art;

  • Clear best practice principles from other cities and reference to what has/has not worked;

  • Recommendations for policy in relation to commissioning, de-commissioning and maintaining artwork;

  • Recommendations regarding funding and investment;

  • Recommendations for improving the process by which public art decisions in the city are made;

  • Recommendations to improve the opportunities for artists (at varying levels), organisations and communities.

3.    To Apply

We would like submissions of proposals of no more than two sides of A4 that articulates why you would like to apply for this tender and what expertise you have to carry out this work. We are happy to receive proposals from organisations, collectives or individuals. Please note you do not have to be a company. Please also outline what your draft budget would be for this work. We would like these costs to be within £8,000 (inclusive of VAT).

NB: If you are an organisation/individual outside the city please articulate how you plan to work with and through the sector and provide opportunities for shadowing or learning in the area of public art development.

If you have any more questions please contact Dom Jinks (d.j.jinks2@exeter.ac.uk) or Belinda Dillon (B.Dillon@exeter.ac.uk). Please send your proposal to Belinda Dillon by 5pm on 7 September 2021.

Thank you for your interest in this brief for tender.

Dom Jinks

Exeter Culture

 
Exeter CultureComment