Promoting Public Art
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We worked closely with Somerset West and Taunton Council and local arts organisations to generate renewed interest in public art and have participated actively in the Council’s Public Art Committee set up for the purpose. As a result of these discussions, we are now in the process of fundraising in order to commission new artwork on Castle Green.
Public art project for Castle Green and the Museum of Somerset
The concept for the artwork is a series of sculptures sited in and around Castle Green: within a wildflower meadow in the Museum of Somerset moat, in the Museum courtyard and on Castle Green itself.
The concept has been developed by Emma Smith, a multi-award-winning artist who was chosen for the project after a competitive selection process. Emma is a visual artist with a social practice who works through public engagement and collaboration.
The artwork takes inspiration from the marine collections at Museum of Somerset, the long-standing local expertise in flood defence from Avalon Marshes to the present day, the history of Castle Green and the status of Taunton as a Garden Town. It reflects on the history and future of climate change in Taunton.
The sculptures will be positioned to give a sense of them emerging from the site, making their way from the moat and out into the town. The concept imagines an era 3.5 million years into the future where the world has entered a period of healing following the devastation of human activity.
The proposal includes the creation of a wildflower meadow within the Museum of Somerset moat. The idea of the wildflower meadow is to place nature at the heart of Taunton, contributing to biodiversity in the town centre and promoting what it means to be a climate-aware Garden Town.
All stages of the project will be taken as opportunities to increase engagement in art, environment and climate change, expanded further through the design of an engagement and activation programme for the space once installed.
The meadow will be developed through community engagement to involve residents in planting, care and maintenance and to embed a strong sense of local ownership and guardianship. Where possible this will be co-ordinated with national events such as Community Gardening Week to increase visibility and impact.
A manifesto for care will be co-produced with local residents to enshrine the idea of reciprocity whereby local residents help care for local green space and local green space helps care for them through increased well-being.
Drawing on our links with schools and community groups through our young people’s festival, we will develop and deliver a young people’s programme to imagine and co-create stories of The Caretakers – to explore their fears and hopes about climate change and to imagine a future epoch and what a healing world might be like.
The Caretaker sculptures will create a backdrop for social gatherings, enabling the activation of the Green and the Museum moat and courtyard as an outdoor classroom and event space.
The programme will seek to expand access to the Museum as the artwork intersects so directly with their collections: creating a porous relationship between the museum and public space and bringing the museum beyond its walls.
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