Collaboration – An Artist’s Perspective – How to save money on public art projects
With his second two man show, for 2013, due to open in May , contemporary landscape artist David Anthony Hall questions why more art installations are not planned into the design of the UK’s new building developments.
‘It is essential for art to be considered at the design stage of any build’ said Lady Cotton, ‘We have been most fortunate to be able to raise funds specifically for art purposes and as we believe strongly in the benefits of art for the patients wellbeing, it is imperative we plan it into our building costs so we don’t subsequently wastes precious budget’. Because the art installations were planned it into the design phase, the charities project manager, Simon Whelan believes the charity saved as much as 10% on installation costs.
Whilst it makes sense in a budget conscious environment to plan all aspects of building projects, including art, it frustrates David to see how little this planning appears to happen.
‘Britain has made a significant contribution to the evolution of architecture over the years and we are responsible for some truly stunning buildings.’ said David ‘If these building projects were able to accrue a percentage of the overall cost or even budget a small percentage at the design phase more art could be installed from the beginning. Adding artwork retrospectively costs more and makes it far more difficult for the artist to present work to its best effect. However, I do feel we are missing a trick? Buildings have become far more sculptural in their design and sculpture is normally commissioned, planned and installed as an intrinsic part of a building. If we could consider doing the same with two-dimensional art, I believe production costs of large scale artwork like mine could be virtually halved. This means I could effectively double the scale of artwork or the number of pieces I produce.’
As the UK enters another difficult economic phase, budgets are being more closely monitored than ever before, whilst millions are still being spent on building projects each year, very few seem to consider the need to extend their budgets to include art installations as part of their building costs. In many countries around the world, including Norway, Canada, Italy and USA, law requires any new public building project to demonstrate a ‘percentage for art’ accrual, which then is used to fund art installations. The accrual percentage ranges from 1% to 2.5%, not only does this allows the designers to plan art installations in a way which guarantees arts inclusion, but it motivates artists in the knowledge art is well supported and means considered choices are made to fit the build.
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