Artists responding to a temporary brief for projects and interventions – in town centres, public spaces, places in flux – have the freedom to test ideas, shift perceptions and open up conversations without many of the constraints that may be required of a permanent artwork. 

Public art might not  be permanent or even a physical object  – it may be an event that changes how a place feels for a day, a week, a season, it could be sound, words, music, a digital moment. What matters is the imprint left on memory, on community, on the way people think about where they live and the opportunity to explore the ambitions for its future. 

Artists play a vital role here – holding space for dialogue in places during periods of change, playing with possibilities, and working alongside communities to imagine possibilities. 

Incline, by artist Trudi Entwistle, was one such project delivered in Scarborough in 2002 as part of ‘People Making Places’ funded by the Yorkshire Forward Urban Renaissance Programme. Incline temporarily transformed a public road into a sculptural green space and provided a stage for performance, projection and cinema. It became a magnet for all ages to sit and enjoy the music in the last of the summer sun, and it’s a powerful example of what the temporary can do.

In this series of images Trudi reflects on the thinking behind Incline and what she learned from the process. Alongside Trudi’s reflections, we’re sharing a selection of just some of the temporary Beam commissions across four decades and multiple artforms – proof that artwork doesn’t have to last forever to have meaning and impact. 

#Beam40 #PublicArt #Temporary #40Forward

• Images 1-8, Incline, Trudi Entwistle, 2002
• Your Space, DSDHA, York, 2009
• Tees Swale Commissions – Our Country Lives Joanne Coates and Swaledale Gates, Abre Etteh, 2021/22 © Wendy McDonnell.
• Dreamers Unite, Boa Mistura with Lightwaves Leisure & Community Centre, Wakefield, 2013 © Scott Smith.
• Dewsbury Creative Town, Kirklees, Pop Up studio and participation activities, Kerry Lemon and Cubic Fruit, 2020-23
• Sounds of Dewsbury, Manasmitra (as part of Dewsbury Creative Town), 2023.
• Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, arts and heritage commissions, Spin a Tale with Constella Opera Ballet and Mr Arkwright, Jo Fairfax, 2018-21
• DVMWHS commission – ‘Threading Through Time’ and ‘Threading Through Communities’, Seiko Kinoshita, 2019/20 © Daniella Sasaki and Lisa Daniels
• HeART Your Town, Kirklees, 2020, featured artists – Helen Brook, Ammie Sykes, Jane Howroyd, Angela Boycott-Garnett, © Studio Bokehgo.
• WE Great Place Programme, Wentworth Castle Gardens, Colour Forms, Lenny & Whale, 2021, © Timm Cleasby.
• WE Great Place – The Mute Still Air, Ed Carter, plus performance with the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. © Scott Merrylees.