Amelia Crouch assesses the recent ‘Curating the Campus Symposium’ and finds fears that universities reject works of genuine artistic value in favour of populist offerings.
Curating the Campus – a symposium held to mark the launch of the University of Leeds’ Public Art Strategy – invited speakers from universities across the UK to discuss their experience of and work with public art on campus. But what kind of public or audience is imagined by campus public art, given that universities are still places where the majority of people do not venture?
What emerged during the day is how tightly the question of audience is embedded with other issues such as placemaking, widening participation, research and artistic autonomy. The approach to audiences contained within public art strategies shines a light on the current state of higher education where universities sit somewhere between being public, educational institutions and businesses focused on income generation.
In the past, universities were places that preferred to keep the general public out; now they actively invite people in. Eric Cross, dean of cultural affairs at Newcastle University, explained how the Newcastle campus is being redesigned to become a welcoming and pedestrian-friendly environment... Keep reading on a-n
Curating the Campus – a symposium held to mark the launch of the University of Leeds’ Public Art Strategy – invited speakers from universities across the UK to discuss their experience of and work with public art on campus. But what kind of public or audience is imagined by campus public art, given that universities are still places where the majority of people do not venture?
What emerged during the day is how tightly the question of audience is embedded with other issues such as placemaking, widening participation, research and artistic autonomy. The approach to audiences contained within public art strategies shines a light on the current state of higher education where universities sit somewhere between being public, educational institutions and businesses focused on income generation.
In the past, universities were places that preferred to keep the general public out; now they actively invite people in. Eric Cross, dean of cultural affairs at Newcastle University, explained how the Newcastle campus is being redesigned to become a welcoming and pedestrian-friendly environment... Keep reading on a-n