South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

Winners of the Third and Final Round of the UK's Biggest Art Awrds Scheme Announced

£170,000 awarded to seven new public art schemes in Kent, Brighton, Portsmouth, Oxford and Winchester

28 March 2007

Tonight, seven projects from around the South East were announced as Final Award winners in the third and final round of Art Plus; the UK’s biggest awards scheme for innovative artworks. The awards, presented by Arts Council England, South East and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), totalled £170,000 enabling the various projects to implement their plans and continue their professional development .

The winning projects are (more details in Notes below):

Organisation Award winners

• Gaps Between – The Gaps Between Project – Ramsgate. Kent (received Final Award worth £30,000). The creation of a permanent artwork for Ramsgate that celebrates the town’s period of intense change. Art Plus Community Award Winner 07
• Kent County Council - Breaking Boundaries – Ashford ring road, Kent (received Final Award worth £50,000). The transformation of Ashford's 1970s Ring Road into a series of connected quality streets, which will reappear as the UK's largest 'Shared Space' scheme. 'Lost O', a programme of artworks, will celebrate the critical moment of change. Art Plus Environment Award Winner 07
• Seran Kubisa and Portsmouth City Council - Treasure Island: a forensic investigation of a city – Portsmouth (received Final Award worth £50,000). The creation of stunning imagery of possessions and artefacts via analysis of microscopic samples. Art Plus Innovation Award Winner 07

Individual Artist winners (each received a Final Award worth £5,000)

• AKA – Moulsecoomb– Brighton. The creation of a network of community pavilions in an isolated community to engage with local people and to create a sense of ownership.
• Jon Adams – Alternative Platform – the regional rail network. The production of a multimedia map of personal journeys in the style of the network rail map to reach a wide audience of the travelling public.
• Katy Beinart - Parallel Worlds – Oxford. The creation of artwork installations that act as 'windows' onto architectural details of the city, highlighting the parallel areas of privilege and disadvantage and the impact of change over time. Winner of Best Early Career Artist Award
• Alex Hoare – A Woman's Place, The Nunnaminster – Winchester. The creation of a sunken sculptural garden on remains of ancient nunnery to creatively open up history to people.

The Art Plus Final Awards event, held at and sponsored by Milton Keynes Gallery to coincide with the city's 40th anniversary this year, also celebrated three successful years of the Awards, the only scheme of its kind in the UK. John Best, Chief Executive of Milton Keynes Council, welcomed guests to the ceremony before the presentation of the Awards by Felicity Harvest, Executive Director of Arts Council England, South East and Pam Alexander, Chief Executive of SEEDA. Former Art Plus Awards winners were present at the celebrations including Malcolm Buchanan-Dick, who presented his unique take on Art Plus projects and their achievements.

Pam Alexander and Felicity Harvest also reflected on the scheme's many achievements, and outlined future plans for Art Plus and art in public places.

Thirty nine awards totaling £640,000 have been given to innovative public art projects across the South East of England.

"Art Plus has transformed the way public art contributes to both large scale regeneration projects and grass roots community schemes," said Pam Alexander, Chief Executive of SEEDA. "Over the past three years, more than 50 artists and over 68 organisations including many local authorities, together with numerous community groups and schools, have taken part in and benefited from Art Plus-funded projects. The scheme aims to develop the commissioning skills of organisations and cross-disciplinary learning as well as individual artists' skills for the benefit of local sustainable partnerships. Many projects, such as Breaking Boundaries and The Gaps Between Project, have successfully engaged with local communities and create a sense of ownership of public art amongst those who live and work locally."

Arts Council South East and SEEDA are committed to supporting future work in public art: "Art Plus has helped launch the careers of many new artists, such as Will Nash and Katy Beinart, and it is important that f uture work is sustainable. Evaluation activities will help to ensure that lessons learnt from Art Plus are disseminated widely and that public art projects are correctly mainstreamed and integrated in SEEDA and Arts Council initiatives. And, importantly, support for winners will continue until the end of the scheme in 2009," explained Felicity Harvest, Executive Director of Arts Council England, South East.

The Art Plus Award Scheme for art in public places is a joint initiative by Arts Council England, South East, and SEEDA to commission and deliver public art of the highest quality, celebrating the place of art and artists in improving the environment.