http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/index/leisure/arts-entertainment.htm
http://www.brent.gov.uk/arts.nsf/Arts/LBB-27
http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/environment/planning/publicrealm/public-art/
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200006/arts_in_southwark/1769/public_ar t/1
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/LeisureAndCulture/ArtsService/PublicArt/
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=8991
The question of how LBWF manages the portfolio of public arts was prompted by my experience of trying to access, 'Linked' - an audio walk/installation by Graeme Miller.
Despite being supported by the London Borough of Waltham Forest, there is very little information about this work by an acclaimed international artist on the council website. All I have found about this work via 'lbwf.gov.uk', so far, is this list of celebrities and notables, which features Graeme Miller.
If the information is there, it is not virtually, literally or metaphorically jumping off the page. When I went to various libraries and a museum to borrow the equipment necessary to participate in Linked, many members of staff (council institutions & employees) did not know what I was talking about. The equipment was (eventually) provided following various enquiries and I recommend Linked as a public art work. The work is partly about people who lost their homes, sometimes forcibly evicted, to make way for the M11 Link road.
I appreciate it is of little consequence I expended a little more time and effort getting access to Linked than I expected however the experience prompted me to ask if various cultural strategies are pointless. The council has expended public funds on a variety of strategic surveys and initiatives which might be considered ineffective.Perhaps, like the provision and management of public footpaths, public art in Waltham Forest is sometimes lost in a labyrinth of strategies - a relevantly dated blank map.
Further afield, beyond the M25, other borough councils appear to be more inspired by London 2012. I was in Ipswich recently and picked up this free guide at the city library. Below are a few scans from the 35 page A5 booklet. It is available for download via Ipswich Council website.
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