Public art

A large-scale, free event featuring theatre and performances will take over London's Square Mile on 15 October.

The event is set to feature more than 100 performers, with a mass treasure hunt, three carnival-inspired fairs and creative street theatre planned.

It is the first major event planned by the City of London Corporation under its new flagship Destination City programme, designed to promote Square Mile's leisure offer.

Backed by a £2.5m annual investment from the City Corporation, Destination City plans to "drive the Square Mile’s recovery from the pandemic, revitalise its streets, reinvigorate its businesses, and boost its attractiveness to talent".

Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation Chris Hayward said the event is "set to become one of the capital’s cultural highlights of the year".

"We will open the Square Mile’s doors to everyone, revealing fascinating secrets and making magical moments happen for our visitors."

A decommissioned oil rig will be transformed into an interactive art installation as part of a project to change perceptions about sustainability.

The 450-tonne structure, which spent the last three decades in the North Sea, has been delivered to Weston-super-Mare beach ahead of being lifted onto a base at the Tropicana arts and music venue in the town in the coming days.

Once the "See Monster" project is completed, the 35-metre high platform will feature a waterfall and seated amphitheatre along with a 6,000 piece art installation to give it "scales", and will be covered in grass, plants and trees.

The installation will be open for two months from August to October, before the artworks are installed around the town and rig itself deconstructed and recycled. 

A major new campus for the Royal College of Art (RCA), featuring a space for public exhibitions, has opened.

The £135m development accommodates four storeys of studios and workshops for sculpture, contemporary art, video and film, and design.

Meanwhile, a double-height 350sq m space space known as The Hanger has large doors at either end to enable the installation of heavy, large or complex works of art, and will be used for public exhibitions. 

A similar but smaller room provides research, testing and assembly space for sculpture and robotics projects.

To coincide with the launch, the RCA has announced a new five-year strategy for 2022–27 which includes plans to double the percentage of Black British and People of Colour students and researchers from underrepresented backgrounds.

The High Court has rejected long-disputed plans for a Holocaust memorial in Westminster.

The Department for Levelling Up, Houses and Communities said the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust's case against the development should be dismissed, but a judge sided with the group, which argued the proposed site must legally remain a public garden.

The project had been approved last year after the government overturned Westminster Council's refusal to grant planning permission.

Olivia Marks-Waldman, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said: “We are surprised by the high court decision and hope that this does not preclude or overshadow the burning need for the national memorial.”

UNBOXED, the 2022 festival of creativity and innovation, has launched its first event in Scotland.

About Us, a multimedia projection and performance artwork celebrating "our place in the universe and the connections between us", is the first of 10 creative projects commissioned for the festival.

Lead creative partner 59 Productions is presenting About Us in Paisley before moving on to Derry, Caenarfon, Luton and Hull. Alongside the nighttime shows, daytime installations and workshops will extend the project's reach to children and young people.

Nine more commissions will be experienced across 80 sites and through digital and broadcast media throughout 2022.

Two men have been arrested for attacking a controversial sculpture by paedophile artist Eric Gill.

One spent hours bashing the artwork outside BBC Broadcasting House in central London with a hammer while the other filmed him. No charges have yet been brought, Metropolitan Police say.

Campaigners have called for the statue, which features a naked child, to be removed but the BBC reportedly plans to keep it.

The incident follows a not guilty verdict for the Colston Four, who argued toppling the infamous statue in Bristol was justified because its continued presence constituted a hate crime or act of abuse.

Ash Sarkar, a contributing editor for Novara Media, wrote on Twitter that Gill's statue "has less in common with Colston than it does the ongoing veneration of abusers in the art world".

Knowsley has become Liverpool City Region Borough of Culture.

Following on from Halton's year with the title, Knowsley will be the next in a rotation of the city's six regions to present a year-long cultural programme.

Planned events include a borough-wide sculpture trail, light installations, a six-metre-wide replica of the earth and the opening of the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot next summer.

"I have no doubt that Knowsley will set a new benchmark for the next rotational round beginning in 2023... and I look forward to seeing what Halton will do again in 2026," Cultural Partnership Co-Chair Phil Redmond said.

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, who introduced the initiative in the region in 2018, said Halton had "risen to the challenge of delivering Borough of Culture during some exceptionally difficult circumstances".

"Looking forward to 2022, I’ve been really excited by the enthusiasm and imagination shown by Knowsley in putting together their calendar of events."

A final programme for 2022 will be announced soon.