Wild Spaces Commission, University of Bristol TQEC. Deadline 28th October
23 Sep 24
Lead Artist sought for Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus – Wild Spaces public art commission
Are you a Developer or Producer who would like more information on Bristol City Council’s Public Art commissioning process and approach? Our team have created resources to support you to satisfy your planning commitments.
We invite you to download the ‘Public Art Commissioning Tool Kit’ below for the most recent guidance for commissioning Culture through our Public Art Policy.
We recognise that putting Public Art and Culture at the heart of new development can be a bespoke process, unique to your site and story. These guidelines are intended to provide a useful framework and answer key questions around methodology, budgets, timelines, scale and project expectations.
Bristol’s Public Art Strategy (2003) is also available for you to reference. Please note that whilst this was published in 2003 and needs updating it is still active and relevant.
For the most recent guidance around process and expectations we encourage you to follow the Tool Kit.
Download the toolkit for Bristol City Council's current guidance on commissioning and delivering art and culture in the public realm as a result of planning policy.
The Public Art Strategy (2003) can be downloaded here. It holds details of Bristol's Public Art Policy which was approved by Cabinet in 2000, and continues to demonstrate Bristol City Council’s commitment to the development of public art across the city as part of the planning process.
Opportunities
Current Opportunities for Artists and Producers
Are you an Artist looking for new projects in the public realm or a Public Art Producer currently looking for work? We invite you to explore the opportunities below and follow the links for further details.
23 Sep 24
Lead Artist sought for Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus – Wild Spaces public art commission
19 Sep 24
Gingko Projects invite artists to apply for a new commission at Kingfisher Court in Stoke Gifford.
19 Sep 24
£45,000 has been made available to support independent businesses in three city centre locations to diversify their nighttime offer.
Have an opportunity you want to promote?
Guidelines for a Public Art Plan contents list can be found in The Public Art Commissioning Toolkit (Appendix) which can be downloaded from the Resources page on the website. Please note that this list is not extensive and is purely a guideline only. Public Art Plans are bespoke to the site and condition and vary in length and detail. There is also an option for ‘further details’ outside of the plan to be submitted to the Case Officer and Public Art Officer and changes agreed should the Plan need to be updated throughout the process of delivery.
These two terms use different language to describe the same document.
Your next step will be to commission a Public Art Producer to work with you on identifying cultural opportunities for your site and to write the Public Art Plan. Please see both the Producer Directory and The Public Art Commissioning Toolkit on the Resources page for guidance on process.
A Percent for Art
In 1991 the Arts Council of Great Britain initiated the Percent for Art Campaign. This is mentioned in Bristol City Council’s 2003 Strategy and is still followed as national guidance – it is a well established principle.
Bristol City Council recognise the ‘percent’ as meaning 1% of the capital construction cost of developments. In line with the national guidelines the City Council expect that 1% of the total build cost is allocated to public art and culture to mitigate the impact of the development on people and place.
The 1% contribution should cover:
Producer fees / project management;
The 1% contribution excludes the preparation of materials required to be submitted with full Planning Applications. For example, the writing of a Public Art Plan/ Strategy by a Public Art Producer of which the budget should be treated separately. Where public art proposals are not submitted with Planning Applications, the City Council may refuse the application. (see process and procurement).
We are aware that there can be viability issues on sites but encourage this budget to be allocated early, otherwise a proof of viability for not providing a significant sum will be requested. We encourage this 1% to be matched with existing budget where a culture led approach could add further value. For example, scheme budgets for public realm, landscaping, decorative schemes / surfaces play etc, or unlocking creative space through former use assets.
The Public Art Officer will often act as broker between external Producers and developers to discuss and secure budgets.
We aim for an engaged approach between the city and developer/s to enable a public art solution that is both achievable and value-adding for both the scheme and the city rather than an unnecessary and expensive ‘add on’.
Whilst most Public Art Policy agreements are currently being secured by Condition, there are some circumstances where securing Public Art via S106 becomes appropriate. For example, the securing of cultural infrastructure via S106 is needed as details of rent costs, timescales and technical details are included.
Where there are early opportunities to pool public art funds together for added value in an area to fund an initial site wide public art plan collectively between developers, S106 contributions may also be agreed alongside a Public Art Condition at approval stage.
Bristol City Council are committed to supporting you to close your Condition at a time that is right for your development process, considering all commitments have been respected. This can sometimes be on submission and approval of your Public Art Plan, or, more commonly, Conditions are left part open until the artwork has been delivered fully against the details submitted in your Public Art Plan. Breaching a Condition is treated very seriously and the enforcement team will be informed.
A specialist Arts Producer will work closely with developers to identify the cultural opportunities for their site. They will be commissioned to write and submit the Public Art Plan and deliver against the details in this plan. Public Art Producers are specialists in their field and are fantastic collaborators, they will open up opportunities and ensure you get the most out of the cultural opportunities in your development. Please download The Public Art Commissioning Toolkit and visit the Producer Directory for more information.
Bristol City Council will only except Public Art Plans written by an external Art Producer or Consultant. Please note Public Art Plans written by members of the Design team or Agents will not be accepted. Please visit the Producer Directory for a list of experienced, recommended Producers.
Bristol City Council has a dedicated Public Art Officer – Georgina Bolton.
The Public Art Officer works collaboratively across the Development Management and Arts Development teams to ensure that major and super major developments are subject to BCC’s Public Art Policy and conditions are placed on sites at approval stage. The Public Art Officer offers strategic advice to developers regarding cultural opportunities and expectations for their sites; will discuss and agree budgets (acting as broker) between Producers and developers and will review and advise on Public Art Plans and ensure that these plans are followed.
The Public Art Officer leads on the Public Art Condition discharge process and will involve enforcement should conditions be breached or not followed correctly.
To contact the Public Art Officer and the culture team please email artandthepublicrealm@bristol.gov.uk
Please see The Public Art Commissioning Toolkit section on De-commissioning for guidance.
Please see The Public Art Commissioning Toolkit section on Maintenance Plans for guidance.
There is tag function that enables you to search for projects that hit the criteria for different categories. For example, you can search ‘landscape’ or ‘cultural infrastructure’ to bring up different projects under these themes.
Bristol City Council is supporting and prioritising securing Cultural Infrastructure as Public Art provision through our current policy. Once creative spaces are lost from areas of regeneration it is extremely hard to get them back. We believe in supporting artists and creatives to have the space they need to thrive – to grow and protect our cultural facilities and to support Bristol’s reputation as a city of culture by encouraging good growth and putting culture at the heat of local regeneration.
There are a number of pilot projects currently in progress that demonstrate securing cultural infrastructure via our planning policy using S106 agreements. We encourage developers to identify opportunities with their Producers and to explore the management models for how ‘giving space’ in their developments would work in practice. The offer of cultural infrastructure can exist alongside a programme of events and permanent works that make up the public art offer for your site.
Link to best practice in Producer FAQS.
Please submit your interest via the online form and we will be in touch.
Please email artandthepublicrealm@bristol.gov.uk with your opportunity information and we will can provide a link out to your opportunity for you.
Best Practice procurement process guidance can be found in The Public Art Commissioning Toolkit, downloaded from the Resources page.
We would like to support both Bristol’s and the UK’s own cultural ecology by providing opportunities for local and national artists, however there may absolutely be occasions where an international voice is of huge benefit. Please see the documents on the Resources page for further info on our approach and the Public Art Principles.
It is best practice to pay Producers for their time in preparing a proposal pitch for your scheme. Bristol City Council suggest that you follow Arts Council England’s Fair Pay advice and refer to organisations such as Artists’ Union England for recommended rates of pay for Artists and Producers. For example, a Producer’s fee may be best matched to the Project Manager column in the rates of pay document here.
We would love to hear from you. Please get in touch via our online form.
Contact details for recommended Public Art Producers who have lots of experience of working with artists in the public realm can be found in the Producer Directory.
Bristol is one of the leading city’s in the UK for public art commissioning. It is recognised for its visionary public art works that can be experienced outside of the conventional gallery and museum setting and instead across the streets, parks and pavements of the city’s public realm.
Bristol City Council’s Core Policy BCS21 is committed to ensuring ‘quality urban design’. This policy states that new developments will need to allocate a budget to commission Public Art and Culture as part of their new development to mitigate the impact of their development on on people and place.
Bristol’s Art and the Public Realm website is a marker of Bristol’s commitment to, and successes in, ambitious public art commissioning. It showcases a ground-breaking selection of Public Art projects that demonstrate a variety of different typologies, approaches and outcomes, opening up perceptions of what public art and culture can look like. Since 2017, a renewed focus has been placed on projects that properly fund process, the employment of people and meaningful community engagement.
We hope it will continue to be an essential resource for Developers, Producers, Artists who are completing projects against Policy BCS21, as well as for the general public who can use it as a tool to explore permanent artworks across Bristol. The hope the archive is also useful for students and academics interested in site specific projects.
Projects featured on Art and the Public Realm Bristol funded via Bristol City Council’s planning policy continue to provide jobs and project opportunities to many local artists and creative producers in the city.
This website is a re-fresh of the previous version of Art and the Public Realm website which was launched in January 2011.
Our aim is for this website to be accessible to multiple audiences and users. These include: the general public interested to explore Bristol’s public art and cultural scene; developers who will be commissioning public art as part of their development projects; Producers who are looking for work in the city; and artists who are interested in expanding their practice into the public realm. Bristol City Council also intend this website to be a useful resource and internal tool for Case Officers and other services to access recent project case studies, principles and processes regarding public art commissioning through development management policy.
The term ‘Public Art’ refers to art that is in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property or whether it has been paid for with public or private money. Bristol City council supports public art that is in public space and accessible to all to visit.
When we think about ‘Public Art’ we often imagine static, permanent sculptures in parks, roundabouts or public squares, but it can do so much more – it can re-engage, amplify, celebrate and immerse.
Ixia (the National Public Art think tank) provides guidance that helps broaden our understanding of what Public Art can be, describing it as ‘art commissioned as a response to the notion of place, art commissioned as part of the designed environment and process-based artistic practice that does not rely on the production of an art object.’
Bristol Council accords with this broader approach, supporting Ixia’s definition of public art ‘as the process of artists responding to the public realm,’ re-defining
Public Art as a diversity of creative practice and cultural experience that takes place in the public realm.
For examples of the shape and form that public art can take please read more on this section in the Public Art Commissioning Toolkit.
The Project Spotlight section allows Bristol City Council to shine a line on live or recently completed projects in different areas of the city.
For the art and culture to be ‘public’ it should normally be in the public realm to which the public has free and easy access, including public buildings (such as hospitals and community centres), paths, streets and roads, and squares, parks and open spaces. Artwork provided within courtyards or enclosed spaces that are subject to restricted or discretionary access to the public may be considered ‘public’ in the sense of providing a wider enjoyment and appreciation of the area, but will generally not be considered public art for the purpose of public art procured through Bristol’s development management policy.
Browse the Producer Directory to find the right Producer for your project.
If you are Producer looking to be included in the Producer Directory please get in touch for more information through our contact page.
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