This article appeared in our July 2024 Newsletter published before the General Election.
Commissioning a work of public art is not like choosing a picture for your living room. It will be seen not just by family and friends but by thousands of people, both residents and visitors, over the years – and liked, one hopes.
Seventeen artists expressed an interest in the advertised brief, from Devon to Wales, Yorkshire to north Lincolnshire, even France. One had had work unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh; another had been to school in Peterborough and knew Spalding well.
All submitted photographs of their work elsewhere, together with a statement of why they found the brief particularly attractive and how they would engage with the public in the process of creating the work, as this last was a condition of the grant from the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund. They could choose to apply for the sheep or the cattle or both. Most chose both.
We selected a short list of seven, who now had several weeks to research and develop their ideas, visit the sites and prepare videos, computer images and maquettes and calculate their budgets, ready for interview on 24 April. One of the things we should be looking for was works that would be striking and make an impact, as our MARK-IT commissions so far – Joseph Hillier’s 14 small bronzes and Laury Disengremel’s The Hiring in Hall Place – had been relatively low-key.
The interviews took place in Ayscoughfee Hall’s Garden Room, and it was gratifying to encounter the quality of the work being presented to enliven the Spalding street scene. It was quite moving too to see the amount of time and thought and research that had gone into the proposed art works and the interview presentations, especially as they’d had so short a time.
Harley Budd’s livestock would be playful, gentle; James Sutton had devised an inventive way of rendering a sheep’s fleece in metal; Rob Neith Nicholson had an elaborate programme for involving the public, and for Sebastien Boyesen the statues and their immediate setting were equally important and would incorporate fragments of poetry.
In the end we chose Graeme Mitcheson, who works mostly in stone, because his design for the cattle sculpture had the boldness and impact we were looking for. And, although we should have liked to commission a second artist for the sheep, Graeme was the only one to offer a flock of sheep for the budget allowed. (The pens in the Sheepmarket were built to accommodate 1300 sheep.)
Graeme Mitcheson’s work can be found all over the UK and includes sculptures commissioned by Sheffield and Wakefield City Councils, English Heritage and the Woodland Trust. A memorial tribute to former England football manager Sir Bobby Robson is situated in Newcastle city centre and he has created three particularly striking public art works for Caernarfon Castle in North Wales. He is an Associate Member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
The models and computer images of the sheep and cattle are first thoughts. At this early stage there will be further discussion and site visits before designs are finalised. It is hoped there will be workshops, too.