As of 1 July 2007 a new program came into force for the support of public art across Queensland - the art+place program.

Daniel Templeman, Confluence, 2004. Brisbane Magistrates' Court, Brisbane, Queensland.

Queensland has a proud history of art in public places. There is the standard imperial heritage of kings and queens, such as the Thomas Brock bronze of Queen Victoria (1906) that stands in Brisbane's Queen's Gardens before a Victorian sandstone building that once held sway over the State as the head of the Treasury and is now a hotel and part of the Treasury Casino complex.

There are the myriad ANZAC and service memorials dotted around the state and the "big things" for which Queensland is famous such as the giant Santa Gertrudis bulls outside Rockhampton or Nambour's Big Pineapple. There are also 20th century works such as Lindsay Edwards' 1959 mosaic on the former State Library building in Brisbane's CBD and The Red Cube by Ken Reinhard in Spring Hill.

Memorials are dotted across the State, many of them to Indigenous Traditional owners such as the 1972 Kanaka Memorial at Hervey Bay by Leo Favell marking previously unmarked graves of forcibly conscripted South Sea Islander plantation workers.

Public art in Brisbane received a boost with World Expo '88, which saw a reclaimed industrial site on the southern bank of the Brisbane River bristling with public sculptures, many of which were to later find permanent homes around the State.

Over a decade later, the Queensland State Government was to introduce its landmark public art program, Art Built-in. This program mandated that all State Government Public Works projects valued at over $250,000 had to devote 2% of the budget to commissioning public art.

There were exemptions for engineering works and aspects of capital works that did not have a public interface, but none the less the introduction of this policy gave an impetus not only to the creation of large numbers of public art works of every shape and size but also importantly created support structures for artists, curators, public art managers, foundry operations, fabricators of all sorts - the impact of which is still apparent in Queensland today.

The Art Built-in program was managed by the Public Art Agency (PAA), headed by John Stafford, aimed at reflecting artistic innovation, excellence, integration of art and architecture and art and design enhancing the experience of the built environment.

Over it's nearly ten years of operations Art Built-in lifted the bar in terms of expectations for integrating public art in Queensland, with projects ranging from the large to small, both in terms of physical size and budget.

Integrated projects such as the Magistrates Courts in Brisbane included works as delicate as jeweller Barbara Heath's slim stainless steel laser-cut panels Breezeway Lattice (2004) in the lift doors and door handles as well as full-wall digital glass work by Judy Watson, heart/land/river (2004). The Roma Street Parkways project, which included 15 commissioned art works from artists as diverse as Scott Redford to Hew Chee Fong & L M Noonan also commissioned bollards and furniture from UAP (Urban Art Projects), the Tobin brothers' foundry operations which have grown into a one-stop project management group that is now taking Australian artists to the world.

In 2005-6, Government Architect Professor Michael Keniger undertook an independent evaluation of Art Built-in. This was to result in a new policy, art+place, which came into effect 1 July 2007.

The art+place initiative saw the establishment of a dedicated Queensland Public Art Fund with $12 million for the first three financial years 2007-10, the creation of an independent art+place Curatorial Panel with responsibility for assessing applications to the Fund and the appointment of a Government Curator art+place to manage the program.

The Curatorial Panel is comprised of experts in art, architecture, design and town planning and the art+place program, for the first time, made state funding available for public art to local councils, not-for-profit arts and cultural organisations and festivals, and private developers, as well as Queensland Government departments and agencies.

Fifty-seven applications were received for the first round of the art+place funding, and funding was approved for 10 State Government projects, eight Local Government projects, six projects by arts and cultural organisations and two projects by private developers. Of this first round 42 per cent of the projects were to benefit Queenslanders in regional centres.

These included art works commemorating the history of rail at Townsville's railway precinct; temporary art work exploring drought and the environment to coincide with Toowoomba's Carnival of Flowers; youth 'street art' at a Gold Coast skate park; and a Cassowary Discovery Trail in Mission Beach featuring contemporary sculptures celebrating the region's icon.

The second round of grants has recently been determined and details of the successful applications will be available in the near future on the Arts Queensland web site. The art+place Guidelines and the Keniger review of Art Built-in are also available on that site.

The art+place program is fundamentally different to Art Built-in in that the funds are allocated through a grants process. In only the 14 months since coming into effect the art+place program has received over 80 Expressions of Interest requesting funding of over $19 million.

The advantage of the art+place program is that it is a flexible program in what is supported, including permanent and temporary art, and also that it can generate partnerships, and support projects undertaken by a variety of organisations, not just new State Government capital works. Also the fund is quarantined, meaning it can't be lost to cost overruns of building projects and there is not an issue of non-compliance.

Furthermore, the art+place program has the advantage of following the Art Built in program which set a new 'bar' for the integration of art in architecture in Australia.

To some extent this reflects that the 'bar' has been raised around the world over recent years with increasing recognition that space and buildings are not purely utilitarian. Instead, human lives are enriched by the inclusion of good and sustainable art and design.

Recognition of this role for art and design in urban and regional development has increasingly become the norm, not an add-on but as a part of the new reality and the way that architects and builders can better meet public needs and, more prosaically, part of the way developments can be differentiated to increase their marketability.

An excellent example is the recently completed new Mater Hospital for Mothers and Babies in Brisbane. This project engaged public art managers, a curator and artists and expended approximately $700,000 on art for the hospital - not as a result of a grant but just as part of the standard building program costs. The outcome is not only a more welcoming environment for patients and visitors but also some striking pieces of public art such as the entry screen by Brisbane artist Mandy Ridley.

Brisbane City Council has also increasingly taken on an active role in commissioning public art with programs such as SCIP (Suburban Centres Improvement Program) with interventions to improve suburban centres; or Artforce focused on local artists painting traffic signal boxes; or the recent Inhabit temporary public art and design exhibition in Brisbane.

Art Built-in made a major contribution to creating this strong foundation for public art across Queensland and set the stage for the new art+place program to further develop exemplars of public art, and to educate and advocate for the public domain as an issue of consequence in Queensland.

Louise Dauth
Government Curator art+place
September 2008