Beam is delighted to have been appointed as advisor to Darlington Borough Council, working alongside fellow advisors Hazel Colquhoun and Emma Underhill (Founder & Artistic Director, UP Projects).

Together advisors will act as critical friends until early autumn 2024, to boost the councils’ knowledge and understanding of current contemporary public art practice and processes. This includes consideration of artist recruitment, project governance and community engagement.

The Arts Council England funded pilot provides additional public art expertise for public art projects that form part of place-based development programmes in the North of England.

The project will support best practice in public art commissioning and production. Places receiving advice will demonstrate learning that can be shared more widely across the sector.

Projects will capture a variety of commissioning approaches, considering scale, timeline, stage of project, equality, diversity and diversity, and social engagement.

Aspects of the learning will be made available later in 2024 through case studies and webinars. Find out more on the ixia website.