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C102
Article
Lottery Director at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
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John
Kindness: from Integrated Artworks Project,
Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children
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In my experience of arts buildings in Northern Ireland,
architects (if the specialists are even employed on building
projects and even that much cannot always be assumed!) will
initially design exciting, innovative and cutting-edge buildings
and after that it's all a compromise, a pulling back, a
gradual process of reversal. This is generally, but not
solely, due to financial constraints. The commissioners
of the building project expect the architect to deal with
the aesthetic considerations, believing that choosing to
employ an architect ticks their own aesthetic-consideration
box (hence the lack of consideration of the input of visual
artists). The commissioners are concerned with the financial
side and become rightly angry when having briefed the architect
with a budget of £6m they find an initial design with a
cost of £10m and spend much time and money to come back
to the point at which they thought they were starting. One
would imagine that functional concerns would take a high
priority but time and again small but essential oversights
are made - the scene dock doors at the wrong angle to allow
delivery of equipment; no booth for confectionery or programme
sales. It's worrying that with all the years of experience
such basic errors and omissions can still take place.
A multi-purpose arts centre is just that - a non-specialist
building. However, the starting point is still usually "how
many seats will it have?" thus indicating that performance
(and size) rather than display is pre-eminent. In building
projects, visual arts only takes its place centre stage
when the building is solely for visual arts; once it becomes
multi-purpose generally the visual arts will be the loser.
I have known education rooms become administrative offices
and an exhibition room become a storeroom. This is due to
a combination of "he who shouts loudest gets what he wants"
and also that in the drawings the square marked 'education
room' looked fine, but once the building is handed over
it's found to be too noisy and badly lit. The basic problem
is that the commissioners just don't have enough experience
and will often only get the one chance to get it partially
right. I don't think it's a "och sure it'll do" attitude,
more a lack of experience.
Quite simply there isn't enough consultation over building
projects - with the public and users (who will often be
paying for the building through higher rates), with the
participants, visual artists and performing artists who
are expected to bring in the paying customers. The commissioners
and architects gear their arts centres to serve the public
and bring in the cash; hence the bar facilities' often being
a key element in the income column.
For what it's worth I believe the best visual-arts projects
I've worked with, and on, to be the integrated art works
in hospitals.1 The commissioners and architects knew from
the beginning that artworks were essential and integral
to the design and building works and therefore they formed
the base building blocks of the projects. Of course there
were changes and compromises but with visual arts co-ordinators
involved from an early stage visual arts were given their
proper and central place.
1For
example, at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children,
Belfast; the Royal Group of Hospitals, Belfast; Causeway
Hospital, Coleraine; the Mater Hospital, Belfast.
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