Art challenges will get communities talking and smiling

Place Curators, Creative Giants are being commissioned by Warwickshire County Council (WCC) to carry out a series of Arts based projects across Warwickshire’s towns.

The commission will create opportunities for artists to create new public art interventions for towns throughout the County which will result in the creation of new artwork.

The idea behind the project is to help start putting the buzz back into our towns and open spaces, following the Covid Pandemic. The initiative will utilise funding received from the Government’s Getting Building Fund through Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, topped up by WCC, to form two complementary projects – one for Northern Warwickshire and one for Central and South Warwickshire.

Creative Giants, an arts company specialising in creating work for the public realm, are currently working with Coventry City Council in the run up to the City of Culture 2021 and plan to work with artists and local communities on the development of the proposed artworks.

Simon Vaughan, Managing Director for Creative Giants, said: “We are really looking forward to seeing what we can achieve for some of Warwickshire’s places. Public Art can be a real stimulus for bringing communities together – whether this be through healthy debate and interaction with our spaces or inviting people to look differently at places.

"The project rollout may be challenging in the current climate but we are committed to making this work for the people of Warwickshire.”

This scheme is part of an initial £6 million package of funding earmarked by Warwickshire Conty Council to support the immediate economic recovery in the county.

Cllr Heather Timms, portfolio holder for Environment, Heritage and Culture at Warwickshire County Council said “We are delighted to see Creative Giants in Warwickshire as we actively support our local towns and communities to find new and creative ways to stimulate economic growth, support local businesses and foster a sense of local pride in our Towns."

Cllr Peter Butlin, who represents the county council on CWLEP, said: "This is a really exciting project which reaches out to our communities and will help to start reinvigorate our towns."