Drayton Public Art Installations
Drayton Parish Council
Further to the article I wrote in March 2019, here is an update. That seems decades away in terms of time, when Corona meant a fizzy orange drink and the nearest we got to lockdown was when watching an old Porridge episode. How times have changed! However, the idea of public art hasn’t, and we are resurrecting it, as time is running and we need to catch up.
That article had set out the concept of having artistic installations in the village, funded by the developers of the three main housing developments, who under section 106 of the Town & Country Planning Act (1990), are obliged to make a financial contribution to the local council to spend on projects to enhance the village. A portion of the funds has been allocated to “Public Art” (the Neighbourhood Plan has more info), and it is up to us to decide how this is spent.**
If you remember, after that article, the Parish Council’s Public Arts working group set up a public meeting for members of the village who responded by coming along to discuss, put forward ideas and vote on what artistic projects they most wanted to see in the village.
Because of financial constraints, we have been able to give the following projects priority:-
- Village entrance signs
- A Mosaic for the small hall (Village Hall) to be produced by villagers
- A Labyrinth
- Wayfinding maps and signs
- Bollards for the small green (by the bus stop)
The total funds allocated to Public Art projects amount to approximately £81,000. Our first project is to erect artistic entrance features at the three main entrances to the village and we have a short list of three artists to be chosen for the project. If you remember, we had planned to display examples of their work at the Drayton Parish Meeting (March 16th). However, that very day it was decided that we should all go under lockdown, so the meeting was postponed. Such bad timing, but the virus waits for no man! {OK, or woman!}.
So we have come up with an alternative plan, which you will see here. We need your help in deciding which one of these three artists should be awarded the opportunity and privilege of designing a high quality and lasting tribute to the character of our village.
Now, turn the page and explore the sample images they’ve provided, then tell us which artist’s design style you would like to see enhancing our village appearance in the near future.
Pervin Shahin
(Parish Councillor)
Please see below for the example images from the 3 Artists for consideration – The images can aslo be found in July’s Chronicle
Artist A – Suzanne O’Driscoll
Suzanne is a gifted artist, with many exhibitions, and for 10 years has been supplying Public Art works, some locally situated, Wantage, Didcot & Bicester (& many others). DO PLEASE see her website, for more examples.
Artist B – Steve Tomlinson
www.saatchiart.com/SteveTomlinsonsPublicArt
Stephen is also very experienced in supplying Public Art works, for Councils and Authorities all over the UK. DO PLEASE see his website, for more examples of his output. [NB He added that the drawings reflect part of the brief, which mentioned Drayton’s famous history with Walnut trees.
Artist C – Julie Edwards & Ron Thompson
http://planetartsculpture.co.uk
And yes, Julie & Ron are ALSO very experienced (also 20+ years) in supplying Public Art works, for Councils and Authorities all over the UK. DO PLEASE see their website, for more examples of their considerable output.
