Grit & Pearl are continously producing strategies, action plans and options appraisals that consider the role of public art within a range of locations. Two that are currently being produced are for Sunderland City and Newcastle City, while a couple of completed strategies are detailed below.
City of Letters: City of Stone. This strategy, commissioned by City of Durham Council and Arts Council England (North East) and written on behalf of Durham City Arts, made a recommendation that was fundamental to the rest of the report – that Durham differentiates itself from the rather generic approach of other cities in the North-East by commissioning the majority of its artworks within two relatively narrow and clearly defined programmes – City of Letters and City of Stone. These two programmes acknowledged two inalienable facts – that stone is emblematic of the city and a major material within the visual fabric of the City, and that learning is a cornerstone of the City’s identity and trade – but this unusually specific approach was driven by an understanding of the city’s political and social context, by the impact of a UNESCO World heritage Site inscription on planning policy, and by acknowledgement of existing cultural activity such as the Durham Book Festival.
Tatton Park Biennial. In 2008 Richard Hollinshead of Grit & Pearl developed the outline concept on behalf of Cheshire County Council, liaising with key stakeholders to assess the appetite for such an event and providing benchmarking research against which the client could set the level of ambition for the Biennial. Development work on this project also included a detailed Action Plan, funding strategy, recruitment of a high-level curatorial team and funding applications.