Not all important works of art and design in Tasmania are kept under the eyes of security cameras in temperature controlled galleries. Many are out in the public sphere in hospitals, schools, libraries and public spaces. Sometimes a work might be so much a part of the community that it's barely noticed - that curvy seat outside the community centre, the ironwork playing host to vines that shelter a walkway. All these works are public art.

The Tasmanian Government has been investing in public art projects since 1979 and manages the oldest Art for Public Buildings Scheme (APBS) in Australia through arts@work, the business unit of Arts Tasmania. Under the scheme, two per cent of the funds for all new State Government buildings and renovations (for projects over $100,000) are allocated for the purchase and commissioning of artworks with a set upper limit of $80,000. Only Tasmanian resident artists are employed under the scheme.

The commissioning and purchasing of artworks results in considerable employment and showcasing opportunities for Tasmanian artists and represents an investment in large-scale, built-in and significant artworks which appreciate in value for the people of Tasmania. The scheme has created a vital public face for Tasmanian's professional artistic community, providing an interface between artists and the general public. Since its inception more than 1300 artworks by 400 artists have been bought or commissioned, and these works are displayed at over 400 sites statewide. Tasmanian schools boast the most comprehensive schools-based contemporary art collection in the country.

Artworks have included outdoor and indoor sculpture, furniture, photo media, glass and ceramic installations, textile designs, works on paper, paintings and light works as well as landscape-based designs. Organisers have always been keen to represent a variety of art forms and a wide range of practising artists.

Artists' briefs are prepared after consultation with key stakeholders and are then advertised in a free fortnightly email bulletin sent out to thousands of Tasmanian artists. Artists are invited to submit proposals for assessment by selection panels usually comprising an architect, a client representative and the state's Public Art Officer. Over the last 29 years hundreds of people have been involved in these selection processes, which in themselves are valuable opportunities for other industry sectors to be exposed to contemporary art practices.

Growing interest in the scheme from other levels of government and the private sector sparked the development of the Corporate Art Scheme in 2001 and the employment of a full time Project Officer - Corporate Art in 2008. The Corporate Art Scheme is accessible to a broad range of artists and projects, focuses on the commission of world-class artworks and encompasses a wide variety of art forms. It recognises that innovative, creative and animated public spaces have a competitive economic edge and enhances social interaction and quality of life.

The Corporate Art Scheme has been widely embraced by many of Tasmania's private organisations and developers as they recognise the potential to value add to their business and improve Tasmania's cultural landscape. Artists working with corporate clients create meaningful work that has a relationship to the environment and the organisations' vision. For example, John Vella and Stephen Hurrel's stainless steel sculpture SCAPE, commissioned by Hydro Tasmania Consulting for its five-star green-rated premises, articulates Hydro's sensitive relationship with the environment and has provoked increased discussion about corporate responsibility.

There are a couple of significant distinctions between the APBS and the Corporate Art Scheme. Firstly, the APBS utilises state government expenditure and employs artists who are resident in Tasmania. The Corporate Art Scheme, through private sector investment, offers the opportunity for Tasmanian artists to engage in collaborations between local, national and international artists. This provides the opportunity of forming new partnerships, bringing new ideas and energy into Tasmania and further promoting Tasmania's reputation to the world. Secondly, whereas the APBS has an upper limit of $80,000, the Corporate Art Scheme has no upper limit for the artwork budget.

The Corporate Art Scheme works to promote a diverse, dynamic and creative culture through its business relationship with leading Tasmanian artists and corporate clients.

The SCAPE story

SCAPE is an open lattice structure around five metres tall and seventy metres long comprising 165 highly reflective stainless steel poles that articulate a vast shimmering three-dimensional topography at the front of the Hydro Tasmania Consulting five-star green-rated building in Cambridge.

International collaboration between Tasmanian artist John Vella and Scottish artist Stephen Hurrel.
SCAPE 2008
Commissioned by Hydro Tasmania Consulting
Budget $127,000
Cambridge Park Drive, Cambridge
Photographer: Jonathan Wherrett

The work is a response to Hydro Tasmania Consulting's abstraction of landscape through the processes of understanding, translating and harnessing natural systems. This sensitive, intimate relationship with flora, fauna, weather patterns and Indigenous sites forms what Vella and Hurrel perceive to be the foundation of Hydro's approach to the environment.

The open, repetitive quality is designed to visually activate the work for the fast-moving highway traffic and fold the piece literally into the environment, forming a bridge between the landscape and the constructed architecture. It is designed to positively exploit the movement of people.

Given the diverse audiences, aspects and approaches to the work, SCAPE is designed to be simultaneously seen and seen through, framing the landscape and the site from multiple directions. In contradistinction to a wall, SCAPE performs more as a lattice offering a certain amount of privacy and containment while filtering and reflecting light, views, shadow and space. In this way, inspired by the flow and exchange that characterises symbiotic relationships and sustainability, SCAPE collaborates with its surrounds.

SCAPE is the first international collaboration between Tasmanian artist Vella and Scottish artist Hurrel and was assisted through an efficient online working process enabled through the latest communication technology.

Claiming Ground conference, 2005

Public art is a hotly contested area of the visual arts. The integration of contemporary art with public spaces can lead to controversy. Sometimes artworks can ignite an almost fanatical debate, and have triggered a flurry of 'letters to the editor'. However in time, even the most controversial public artworks have come to be accepted into the communities for which they were intended. Perhaps this is related to the fact that we are a small island, and our artists are very much valued members of our community.

In 2005 the 25th year of operation of the APBS was marked by the publication of a book "Claiming Ground: 25 years of the Tasmanian Art for Public Buildings Scheme". With the catalogue ranging from the August bronze sculpture "Minos" by the late Oliffe Richmond, to work by the fabulous and funky Axiom Furniture, the book provides a window into the breadth and depth of works that the people of Tasmania own through their public art collection.

To compliment the book, a public art trail was set up. The trail gives everyone the opportunity to plan a taster of the public art that enlivens some of the smallest towns and the biggest landscapes in the state.

Of course, Tasmanians don't keep their public art to themselves. As part of Living Artists' Week in 2005, Hobart hosted Tasmania's first conference on public art, also called Claiming Ground. Speakers and delegates attended from all over Australia and from as far away as the UK and Canada. The aim of the conference was to encourage discussion on the latest trends and good practice in public art. With a healthy mix of artists, architects and art workers, the conference generated some fabulous debates.

Belinda Robertson
arts@work, Tasmania
September, 2008