Morecambe?s award-winning Tern Regeneration programme of public art works has already achieved one of its key aims: to animate the seafront and entertain the public during the day, explains Brian Marsden.
The next challenge was for artists to work with the latest lighting technology available to provide visually stunning and thought-provoking images and text for visitors on the promenade at night.
An elegant contemporary family of lighting fixtures has been adapted by the lighting consultants Jonathan Speirs and Associates and the manufacturers iGuzzini with which the artists could work and manipulate to produce different effects. The system of 38 luminaires contain a mixture of single and double-headed lamps which illuminate the promenade and the adjacent car parks. Fourteen of the lighting columns have been adapted to take glass or steel gobos which project images on to the surface of the promenade, and of course these will only become visible after dark.
The first exhibition created by Josh Young was installed in October 2000 and was very much a testing exercise. Lessons were learnt as to the artwork needed to produce clarity when projected and artists have since benefited from each other?s work. A series of artists have been commissioned to produce artworks and funding has been found to provide three exhibitions a year for the next two years. The first year is complete with images from ?Dancing Steps? to ?Microscopes on Morecambe Bay? and ?Full Circle? providing a mixture of images to entertain the public on their nocturnal promenading. The present exhibition by David Goard is based on the Midland Hotel which is an Art Deco building on Morecambe?s seafront.
Brian Marsden is Arts and Events Assistant for Lancaster City Council. t: 01524 582319; e: bmarsden@lancaster.gov.uk Thanks also to lighting consultants Jonathan Spiers and Associates The Tern Project is funded by the Arts Council of England through the National Lottery, Lancaster City Council, North West Arts Board and Lancashire County Council.