The British Art Show lighting up Plymouth
As we continue to evolve our plans for Plymouth’s Civic Centre, we’ve worked with local designers to welcome a new art installation at the building, lighting up the city on these dark winter nights. Here, our colleague Adam Willetts tells us more.
We love working in Plymouth. For the past 15 years we’ve been transforming Royal William Yard, taking a series of disused naval buildings and turning them into new places in which people can live, work and play. Fast forward to today and what was once a deserted part of the city is an award-winning, vibrant place filled with bars and restaurants, homes, galleries and a regular programme of events.
While we work on the final buildings there – including the centrepiece Grade I Listed Melville – we are also evolving plans for the Civic Centre a mile east in the heart of the city. It’s here that we hope to assimilate our experience from the Yard, creating another hub for Plymouth with new homes, workspaces and leisure amenities.
While we develop our plans, we’ve also helped bring the building to life with a new art installation that has lit up the building’s windows.
The first instal is now live, with a bright pink sign asking ‘What Will You Make Of It?’. The striking piece has been developed by agency Creative Concern as part of the marketing campaign for the nationally-recognised British Art Show 9, which runs at city venues until early January.
It’s the first in a series of light installations commissioned in the city centre in a project led by Plymouth Culture, in partnership with Plymouth City Council and funded by Historic England through the Heritage Action Zone programme. The light-powered artworks are designed to breathe new life into spaces and buildings - creating everyday cultural encounters for those who see them.
It is another example of our commitment to art and understanding that successful regeneration is about so much more than bricks and mortar. Making successful places means understanding the value people bring, especially the role of artists and creatives who deliver intangible value to the places they inhabit – and this install is the latest in our three decades of collaborating with artists and designers to feature their works within our buildings.
We hope you’ll pop along to view it; in the meantime you can see some of our other works of art here and our plans for Civic Centre here.
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