BEVERLEY – East Riding is about to make a long-term decision about how public art is created, funded and placed across the region — and this time, artists aren’t being asked to admire the plan after the fact. They’re being asked to help shape it.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council has commissioned BEAM to develop a new Public Art Strategy that will steer the next decade of public art across the area. Not a glossy document that gathers dust, but a working framework that decides what gets commissioned, where it goes, who’s involved and how communities experience it. If the East Riding is serious about reflecting its own character — coastal edges, market towns, industrial heritage, rural quiet, creative pockets and everything in between — then it needs the people who actually make culture here to be in the room.
So here’s the call-out. If you’re a local artist, sculptor, designer, filmmaker, muralist, craftsperson, performer, digital creator, heritage specialist — or anyone whose work connects to place — BEAM wants your voice. The consultation sessions are deliberately informal. The agenda isn’t bureaucratic; it’s practical:
What public art has the East Riding got right in the past — and where has it fallen flat?
What’s stopping public art from happening more boldly here — funding, permissions, spaces, confidence, collaboration?
What would a useful strategy look like from the artist’s side, not the administrative one? And crucially: what ideas, ambitions and risks should the next 10 years include?
You don’t need a CV full of installations to take part. You don’t need to have worked on public art before. If you care about how creativity shows up in public spaces from a sculpture trail to a temporary intervention to a digital piece projected onto a wall, your perspective counts. The worst outcome would be a strategy written without the people it affects.
The discussions will take place online with BEAM, and you can pick whichever slot works:
Tuesday 25 November, 2pm–3.30pm
or
Thursday 27 November, 6pm–7pm
To book, email arts.development@eastriding.gov.uk with your preferred date.
This is a rare chance to influence what the East Riding looks and feels like in public spaces for the next decade. If we want public art that’s ambitious, rooted, surprising, and genuinely reflective of the place and it starts with the people who create here stepping forward and saying what they think. Creatives often get invited in at the end. This time, it’s the beginning.