Beacon Quay Public Art Commission

Background to project

Two years ago talks began between Melanie Thompson and Torbay Council. Melanie Thompson had already successfully worked with the Living Coasts project over a three-year period to commission and install a site-specific sound artwork from a local husband and wife team of a composer and architect. That project was conceived and constructed as Living Coasts was designed and built. It was decided that the same process could be applied to Beacon Quay.

What is unique to this project?

The role of the lead artist - Melanie Thompson, who has been working in the Arts industry all her working life and has taken the role of the lead artist for this project. This job entails mediating and negotiating between the different worlds of the commissioned artist and the client, which for this project is the Council. Her role also involves giving advice to both parties in relation to placing an original artwork into a specific place and community.

The process of work

Once the place was decided on for the artwork, the lead artist applied for a grant from the Arts Council to pay the artists fee. When the job was advertised nationally, we had over 150 enquires and over 80 applications.

The artists brief was not to come up with a prepared idea for interview that could be placed anywhere, but instead to be able to create an original work after a period of research into the area and its history. So the final artwork would be responding in materials and ideas to specifically the Quay and the community it is surrounded by.

The Chosen Artist

In October 2005 a panel made up of the council, the lead artist, and other interested parties interviewed a shortlist of 6 artists. We chose a local artist at the end of the day, Bob Budd. One of the reasons Bob was chosen was that he was originally a film maker and therefore was very interested in stories and researching ideas. He also uses lots of different materials and art forms to express his ideas. He has created many works all over Europe for specific events and places.

The Design

Following almost 4 months of consultation, Bob spent a lot of time working on designs for the piece of work.  There was a public meeting on 30 March where the final design was unveiled. See below.  The project includes a large mild steel hoop with a 7mt diameter. Running through this along the ground are a series of lights making up a message in morse code. The final element can be seen in the space at the front of Brewers Fayre, the "gateway" to Beacon Quay. A large cross will be embedded in the ground here, again in light, and of a similar size to the hoop, pointing in the direction of the hoop itself.  For more clarification, or for any questions, you can email the artist Bob Budd on the email address below.

Opening

The opening event was held on 5 October 2006 when the work was unveiled. Make sure you go down to the Quay and have a go at working out the morse code message!