Credit: Harriet Hand. Imagineering workshop image
Synopsis
Bristol City Council is working alongside local residents, businesses, and landowners, to guide the long-term transformation of East Bedminster, including the delivery of Bedminster Green as a thriving new neighbourhood in the heart of South Bristol.
Bedminster Green is a development area made up of five sites (plots) which will collectively welcome around 3,500 new residents to the area.
The scale of development presents an exciting opportunity to embed public art at the core of the area’s identity, in line with Bristol City Council’s Public Art Policy.
To make this vision a reality, Bristol City Council’s Arts Development team has partnered with Bedminster Green developers, securing co-investment to commission public art consultants Ginkgo Projects. Their engaged approach guided the creation of a public art strategy that balances a cohesive artistic vision with the unique timelines and planning requirements of each development.
Description
Bedminster Green is a development area made up of five sites (plots) being redeveloped with residential-led, mixed-use schemes. The development sites will collectively bring around 3,500 new residents to the heart of East Bedminster and help to boost the economy of East Street – Bristol’s oldest high street – and its ecosystem of proudly independent businesses.
With change on this scale comes a unique opportunity for a site-wide delivery of public art, aligning with Bristol City Council’s Public Art Policy.
The ‘Futureweave’ strategy, developed by public art consultants Ginkgo Projects, sets out a bold vision for cultural programming and creative interventions across the regeneration area. Shaped in collaboration with developers and informed by a community ‘Hive’ group, ‘Futureweave’ lays the foundations for long-term cultural presence in Bedminster Green and its surrounding areas.
Each development site has its own public art strategy, designed to compliment the wider vision, while allowing flexibility for individual projects to evolve on their own timelines.
The residencies will explore three key themes, relevant across the entire site:
Shared Happenings – (bringing people together)
Greening – Weaving nature into the urban environment, connecting residents to local green and blue spaces.
Connecting Narratives – Celebrating the area’s past and future through storytelling, memory, and creative expression.
These themes will deliver on broader priorities such as skills development, community engagement, and legacy-building.
While these areas of activity provide structure, the creative projects that emerge will be fluid, often blurring boundaries between physical, digital and experiential art. Some will take shape in the built environment, while others will leave lasting impressions through moments of connection between artists, residents and communities.
With Futureweave, Bedminster Green is not just being built—it’s being woven into the cultural fabric of Bristol.
Artists Announced for Metal Works Residencies at Bedminster Green
Ginkgo Projects is delighted to announce the appointment of Liam Taylor-West and Leeza Awojobias the selected artists for two new 8-month residencies at Metal Works, funded by Watkin Jones plc as part of the wider regeneration of Bedminster Green in south Bristol.
These residencies are an invitation to think differently about public space – and to imagine new ways of living, making, and being together in the city.
Located within a major new student housing development, Metal Works is a key site in Bedminster Green. The residencies are part of Futureweave – a long-term public art strategy developed by Ginkgo Projects in collaboration with local residents and city-based partners commissioned by Bristol City Council.
Leeza Awojobi
Residency: Common Threads
Common Threads invites a deeper look at the evolving dynamics and diverse cultures that define Bedminster Green and to explore partnership working with Windmill City Farm and other local organisations.
Leeza Awojobi is a Bristol-based restorative poet who writes to explore what it means to be human and understand across differences. A keen learner of culture and theology, she gets excited when she sees threads extend within and across both.
She started her professional journey with the Creative Youth Network who commissioned her debut piece, A Meal Around Bristol and in 2021, was awarded £10,000 from Arts Council England to explore poetry and materials. She’s interested in what makes us tick, especially how our different perspectives affect the way we problem solve and interact with our surroundings. With her community mediation training, she uses her skills to facilitate well-crafted gatherings which get people creatively engaged and eagerly talking about what’s most important to them. She is currently Poet-in-Residence at Bridges for Communities, where she performs at their Peace Feasts and engages their Listening Spaces.
Liam Taylor-West
Residency: A River’s Path
This residency focuses on the green and blue spaces that flow through and around Bedminster Green, exploring natural ecologies, local histories, and social relationships with the landscape.
Liam Taylor-West is a composer and audio-visual artist who works primarily with live musicians and new technology. His compositions and artworks are built around the resulting behaviour of large numbers of active elements, often featuring audience interaction and random events. Liam is interested in colour, light, rhythm and movement. In 2018, Liam received the Ivors Composer Award in the Community or Educational Project category for The Umbrella, performed by the National Open Youth Orchestra. He holds a doctoral degree in composition from the Royal College of Music, in London, and has worked with several orchestras including regular collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Liam is an advocate of the use of creative technology in composition and performance, and is a Resident at Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol.
