NPPF Reforms - ixia response (2024)
Public Art Support Pilot (2024)
Diversity & Inclusion in the Public Art Sector Event Review (2023)
Board Members
Survey Archive (2011-2018)
Survey and Forums Report (2022)
ixia background
Public Art Support Pilot (2024)
Diversity & Inclusion in the Public Art Sector Event Review (2023)
Board Members
Survey Archive (2011-2018)
Survey and Forums Report (2022)
ixia background
Links
︎︎︎ Email
︎︎︎ Twitter ︎︎︎ LinkedIn
ixia was established to promote and influence the development and implementation of public art policies, strategies and projects through creating and distributing knowledge to: arts and non-arts policy makers, public and private sector commissioners, curators, artists and the public.
︎︎︎ Email
︎︎︎ Twitter ︎︎︎ LinkedIn
ixia was established to promote and influence the development and implementation of public art policies, strategies and projects through creating and distributing knowledge to: arts and non-arts policy makers, public and private sector commissioners, curators, artists and the public.
News
ixia Webinar
Helping Public Art Happen Well: Findings from place-based commissioning
Tuesday 19th November 2.00 - 3.30pm – free
ixia, with funding from Arts Council England, has been supporting three councils developing public art commissioning projects planned as part of Levelling Up or Town's Fund programmes. This webinar will share recommendations arising from work with Barnsley, Darlington and St Helens councils, focused on what works best in relation to early planning and governance approaches for public art commissions. We will hear from Susie Gray, ixia's Pilot Programme Manager, pilot advisors and and participating councils. They will reflect on current challenges and learnings that will help enable successful public art commissions that improve places to be realised. There will be time for discussion.
To sign up to receive the webinar link, RSVP to ixiaprojects@gmail.com by 5pm Friday November 15th.
Further info: in 2024, advisors Hazel Colquhoun, Fran Smith (Beam), and Emma Underhill (Founder & Associate Director, Up Projects) have been critical friends to Barnsley, Darlington and St Helens councils, helping to boost their knowledge and understanding of current contemporary public art practice and processes. Case study recommendations and public art precedents will be available here following the webinar. See also Public Art Support Pilot (2024)
ixia response to NPPF reforms
In September 2024 ixia submitted a response to the UK government's consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system.
ixia's response was prepared by Odette Chalaby (a specialist planning, environmental and public law barrister at No 5 Chambers and an Associate board member of ixia) with the support of ixia's board.
Our submission and recommendations were supported by Arts Council England and CVAN.
ixia gives Public Art and Placemaking keynote for CLOA online event November 2023
In November 2023, ixia's Public Art Pilot Programme Manager Susie Gray shared findings from ixia's recent survey repport that underlines major issues and development potential within the public art sector and highlighted ixia's pilot programme of public art guidance for place improvement programmes in the North of England. This was preceded by Colin Ledwith, Head of Consultancy, Contemporary Arts Society talking about What is public art? What is its value? How do we create a public art framework and approach?
The session continued with case study presentations from five councils around the UK that highlighted a variety of aspects and approaches including embedding public art over the long term and funding public art. Presenters offered a candid summary of the challenges and how these were addressed, as well as insights into the impact of the work and how it contributed to placemaking in the local area. You can find out more and watch a recording of the webinar here (1hour 38 mins) as well as find PDFs of the keynote presentations.
https://cloa.org.uk/2023/11/09/public-art-and-placemaking/
CLOA is the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association, the lead body that advises on, advocates and champions culture and leisure on behalf of public sector cultural, tourism and sport services sector professionals, locally, regionally and nationally.
The current board of directors are: Katy Beinart, Tom Freshwater, Suzanne Heath, Cathy Newbery and board associates and advisory members Katie Daley-Yates, and Odette Chalaby.
To be kept informed of ixia’s development please drop us a line and we will add you to the mailing list.
ixia Webinar
Helping Public Art Happen Well: Findings from place-based commissioning
Tuesday 19th November 2.00 - 3.30pm – free
ixia, with funding from Arts Council England, has been supporting three councils developing public art commissioning projects planned as part of Levelling Up or Town's Fund programmes. This webinar will share recommendations arising from work with Barnsley, Darlington and St Helens councils, focused on what works best in relation to early planning and governance approaches for public art commissions. We will hear from Susie Gray, ixia's Pilot Programme Manager, pilot advisors and and participating councils. They will reflect on current challenges and learnings that will help enable successful public art commissions that improve places to be realised. There will be time for discussion.
To sign up to receive the webinar link, RSVP to ixiaprojects@gmail.com by 5pm Friday November 15th.
Further info: in 2024, advisors Hazel Colquhoun, Fran Smith (Beam), and Emma Underhill (Founder & Associate Director, Up Projects) have been critical friends to Barnsley, Darlington and St Helens councils, helping to boost their knowledge and understanding of current contemporary public art practice and processes. Case study recommendations and public art precedents will be available here following the webinar. See also Public Art Support Pilot (2024)
ixia response to NPPF reforms
In September 2024 ixia submitted a response to the UK government's consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system.
ixia's response was prepared by Odette Chalaby (a specialist planning, environmental and public law barrister at No 5 Chambers and an Associate board member of ixia) with the support of ixia's board.
Our submission and recommendations were supported by Arts Council England and CVAN.
ixia gives Public Art and Placemaking keynote for CLOA online event November 2023
In November 2023, ixia's Public Art Pilot Programme Manager Susie Gray shared findings from ixia's recent survey repport that underlines major issues and development potential within the public art sector and highlighted ixia's pilot programme of public art guidance for place improvement programmes in the North of England. This was preceded by Colin Ledwith, Head of Consultancy, Contemporary Arts Society talking about What is public art? What is its value? How do we create a public art framework and approach?
The session continued with case study presentations from five councils around the UK that highlighted a variety of aspects and approaches including embedding public art over the long term and funding public art. Presenters offered a candid summary of the challenges and how these were addressed, as well as insights into the impact of the work and how it contributed to placemaking in the local area. You can find out more and watch a recording of the webinar here (1hour 38 mins) as well as find PDFs of the keynote presentations.
https://cloa.org.uk/2023/11/09/public-art-and-placemaking/
CLOA is the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association, the lead body that advises on, advocates and champions culture and leisure on behalf of public sector cultural, tourism and sport services sector professionals, locally, regionally and nationally.
The current board of directors are: Katy Beinart, Tom Freshwater, Suzanne Heath, Cathy Newbery and board associates and advisory members Katie Daley-Yates, and Odette Chalaby.
To be kept informed of ixia’s development please drop us a line and we will add you to the mailing list.
ixia is a charitable company limited by guarantee. Charity no. 1106457.
Our Privacy Statement and Data Policy is available here.
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Our Privacy Statement and Data Policy is available here.
Background
Since 2000 ixia managed the website www.publicartonline.org.uk (originally commissioned by Public Art South West). This website is no longer actively updated, but is an important record of UK public art practice from the 1990s and until 2010.
In 2015 ixia lost its NPO funding from Arts Council as part of the national cuts to arts provision and ceased to operate as an active organisation whilst retaining a Board and ambition to reinstate and continuing to monitor the sector via a yearly survey.
In 2019 a new board of directors were appointed and began an organisational review to reflect on ixia’s history, the future of public art and how best to support the public art sector during these challenging times. In September 2021, ixia were awarded a development grant by Arts Council to enable us to work towards a sustainable future for the organisation.
The Arts Council Grant that we received in 2021 enabled us to undertake a year of organisational development activities, which have included:
Creating an online survey ‘Why Public Art, Why Now?’ which enabled us to analyse what those within the sector currently need and understand the barriers to accessing work and opportunities.
Hosting a series of online forums in order to hear first-hand from independent artists and producers about their experiences of working across the public art field. The forums built on from the survey enabling us to get a more nuanced and detailed understanding of the complex situations within public art commissioning and the different kinds of resources and support artists and producers need going forward.
Commissioning a Digital Audit of the Public Art Online Website by Tim Jukes in order to understand the potential requirements for building a refreshed website. The Public Art Online website still receives attention from artists, producers and commissioners despite being out of date. We’re aware how important it is to have a central website where sector professionals can access public art resources and case studies particularly in light of the levelling up agenda and increase in large scale commissioning programmes as part of regeneration.
Having undertaken all these activities, we are now at a stage where we are reviewing and analysing the information collected in order to create a strategy for ixia’s work going forward. We want to support the existing sector, but through our research activities, in particular the survey it is evident that the sector/workforce is not diverse and we need to put in place programmes of support to help the sector diversify. The headlines of our survey findings indicate a sector prone to:
- Ageing (average age of men 55/ average age of women 49)
- Disproportionate around roles in terms of genders (female bias)
- Predominately white (over 80%)
- Predominantly able bodied (over 80%)
- Concentrated in London, SW and SE
- Predominantly freelance
As an outcome of this work we held a forum about EDI in the Public Art Sector jointly with Beam and CVAN in October 2023. More details can be found on this page