On September 17 & 18th we joined the inaugural Tipton Community Festival to introduce The Gauging House Redevelopment project. Supported by Heritage Lottery Fund Start up Grant we are undertaking research and consultation to begin to develop a wider understanding of the context of this site and how it can be reimagined for today’s purposes and contribute positively to Tipton and wider Canal Communities.
We gathered some amazing historical stories from Boat People whose family was born in the original cottages on the site of the Gauging House as well as collecting some brilliant ideas for potential community uses, reinstating as a dry dock, micro brewery, community bakehouse, comedy/ performance venue and petting farm. We are looking forward to continuing our research of this historically significant canalside building as well as developing further relationships with the Tipton Community for reimagining this building.
On 17th September 2015 Public Artist Limited launched ‘Colour Spaces’ in collaboration with artist Claude Heath, at the Thame County Show. Visitors were introduced to the project and invited to construct their very own ‘colour space’ cube through an on-the-day public engagement activity.
The launch was also featured on Thame City Council website.
‘It was great talking to the people of Thame and challenging our perceptions of colour spaces and the surprising variance in experiences of colour.
Children and adults enjoyed chatting to the artist and taking away their own little colour space. I love the idea that there are miniature colour spaces spread all around Thame.’
– Co-founder Jo Capper
Claude Heath and Public Artist Limited will launch ‘Colour Spaces’ at Thame County Show on 17th September 2015. Claude has been appointed to install a permanent sculpture at Cotmore Business Park that responds to the environment and the business moving to new premises on the site; Groves and Windles Group.
“In the digital age, all colours have three numbers to show their mix of red, green, and blue. Now try to imagine a three dimensional space in which any colour can have its location pinpointed, each of the three numbers helping to place it spatially. If each colour has a height, width, and depth, then you can imagine that all the colours in a picture, for example, will combine to form a colour space, a spatial field of colour that contains all of them. It is also possible to take one further step, imaginatively speaking, taking a colour space and giving it a solid form, as a painted sculpture that will stand on the grass beside an Oxfordshire byway, a spectrum in tangible shape to act as a beacon and conductor of colour in its surroundings.”
— Claude Heath.
Public Artist Limited commissioned HTF Media to document reclamation activities on the site. Demolition and decontamination works are progressing prior to new development anticipated in early 2016. The documentation will be used Public Artist Limited as a resource for future public art associated with the scheme utilising moving image.
Public Artist Limited has been appointed by Bridges Ventures to deliver the public art engagement programme for Pantheon Park, a key employment site in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton. The site is being reclaimed for redevelopment and will deliver up to 400,000sqft of new industrial floorspace. Public art associated with the project will comprise a variety of temporary and permanent works following a brief to be developed by Public Artist Limited.
The artist Claude Heath has been selected to install a permanent sculpture at Cotmore Business park in Thame. Claude was selected from 15 entries in response to a public invitation for expressions of interest. Claudes work ‘Colour Spaces’ responds to a common theme of the first two occupiers of the site, Windles and Groves, who are relocating to bespoke new premises on the site being developed by Stoford Properties Ltd. Public Artist Limited have commissioned the public art for the project and plan to launch the artwork at Thame Show in September 2015.
Public Artist Limited brings together Jo’s expertise in fine art and Jon’s expertise in the property development industry. The company believes that the arts have the capacity to transform and develop new understandings of the world around us. The organisation will work with a range of public and private sector clients, curating and commissioning site-specific art projects and facilitating creative collaborations through the management and implementation of art projects. Public Artist Limited is active in consulting on multidisciplinary projects, focused on enhancing links between the visual arts, enterprise and communities.