Mayor meets Artists for New Swindon Schools(22/03/2006) |
On Wednesday March 22nd the Mayor of Swindon, Councillor Ray Fisher, met with Bruce Williams, Mari-Ruth Oda, Gordon Dickinson and Maarten de Reus. These four artists are each delivering aspects of an Art Programme developed and managed by Artpoint for Education Support (Swindon) Limited (ESSL). This is as a direct result of Swindon Borough Council’s Percent for Art Policy, a key part of the Private Finance Initiative. The new schools for Swindon are; Hreod Parkway School, Brimble Hill and Uplands Special Schools and Moredon Primary School. This activity also extends to three completely new schools; Orchid Vale Primary School, Red Oaks Primary School and River View Secondary School. The Art Programme includes permanent, integrated artworks, temporary projects, a web site, school workshops with artists, creative sessions with new media experts and a forum for dialogue across the schools. ESSL and Artpoint have established an Executive Steering Group that includes school Heads, staff representation, the Council and members of the PFI Consortium to support an ongoing consultation and evaluation process as the programme of work takes place. This exciting work is being undertaken as a collaborative dialogue between the project managers, architects, landscape designers, the building team and appointed artists. Bruce Williams has been appointed as Consultant Artist for the project as a whole and each school has selected an individual artist to make a permanent work. This will be followed by further appointments for artists to run additional educational projects in all the schools. |