Calling All Developers
As more local authorities ask for developer contributions for public art, the question
inevitably arises as to how that money should be spent. Few local authorities have
public art strategies or even arts development officers. Planning Committee councillors
rarely challenge what 'contribution towards art' actually means, and not all authorities
monitor how and where the monies are used.
Nevertheless, there is the temptation for developers simply to agree to providing
an art contribution as a condition of planning consent, without appreciating the
potential for strategic promotion of their own brand identity.
So how much should developers contribute? Should the art be on site or contributions
put into a pot towards a major piece of art in a prominent public space? What actually
constitutes ‘art’? What control should the developer exercise?
It is our view that these contributions should be an extension of a developer’s
marketing and PR strategies. £20,000 (and often a lot more) is not an unusual amount
to be requested, and if handled properly the return can far outweigh the actual
costs.
To maximise the benefits to their businesses and profile, companies should, themselves,
have a clear policy for supporting art – in all its forms. There should be a reciprocal
gain for these contributions.
Think for a moment how much it costs to advertise each of your developments week
in, week out, in the local press. A great deal more than £20,000 over the lifetime
of a single scheme!
However, if you link the art project to an effective media campaign, you can easily
double your money in terms of airtime, goodwill and column inches, raising a company’s
profile in the right context of community care over months and years, locally and
even nationally.
An art contribution could be phased over the duration of construction, through sponsoring
a local art project; it could be focused on, for example, helping the respected
charity, Sane, develop its annual arts awards at local levels. Art is one of the
great healers for people with mental health problems.
Alternatively, why not commission a local artist (or develop a schools/college programme)
to record the changing urban landscape as a regeneration project takes shape? Having
an artistic/photographic record of before, during and after is a valuable contribution
to local archives, and could form part of a permanent exhibition within the scheme
or be used to attract City investors by emphasising a company’s wider social credentials.
Street theatre is art, sponsoring the local museum to create new exhibition space
so it can get its collections out of storage is art; try linking an arts project
to reducing anti-social behaviour (graffiti walls and special activities can be
very successful, reducing crime by as much as 36% in one town during the summer
holidays). Offering to restore a town monument, such as a War Memorial, is art.
Having a competition through the local media to create a piece of sculpture linked
to the history of an area would be welcomed as encouraging local talent, individually
made street furniture, lighting and delightfully crafted gates to a pocket park
(as with Barratts at their Foxhall Gardens development in Ipswich) are all art.
Even paving can be art.
Providing funding for an annual short story award is art. A mobile bandstand (average
cost £25,000), which can be moved from one public space to another for community
events, is art (and it can be heavily branded with the developer’s name).
There are occasions when a signature piece is integral to a specific high quality
scheme which both developer and local authority want to use as a benchmark for others
to follow. In such cases an open invitation to the country’s top art colleges to
submit ideas working from a detailed brief shows an understanding of how important
it is to encourage the next ‘Damien Hirst’. And it creates wide and prolonged publicity.
Local authorities never have enough money to deliver all they aspire to, so it is
well worth taking the time to understand their problems and create an arts policy
built around their ambitions. Such ideas have potential for permanent legacies,
and should be branded as such, with the company logo, but they also demonstrate
social responsibility. And at least you know that your money is doing what you want
it to!
Similar principles apply to LAPS, LEAPS and NEAPS, but that’s for another day...
If you would like to discuss our services in more detail please contact James Biley or Kelly Fox at
newbusiness@countrywide.co.uk
Countrywide plc is the UK's largest property related professional services and estate
agency group, with over 1200 offices nationally.