Sustainable transport is hardly the sexiest muse in the world but Sustrans, the charity behind the National Cycle Network, wants it to be the inspiration for thousands of artists across Britain.
Set up in 1977 by a few Bristolians who wanted somewhere to walk without having to dodge the escalating traffic around their city, Sustrans is about getting us lazy couch potatoes off our fat botties, leaving the car at home, and conveying ourselves from A to B by walking or riding “on yer bike”, to paraphrase Norman Tebbitt, MP.
To ensure none of us have any excuse for not getting out there, Sustrans has somehow managed to oversee the development of more than 10 thousand miles of bike track/ connecting the whole of the UK.
And, thoughtful lot as they are, Sustrans has even gone to the trouble of helping to alleviate any inkling of boredom that might arise between cardiac arrests as you pound the pedals towards distant horizons, by launching its ‘Art & the Travelling Landscape’ programme.
The aim of the programme is to work in partnership with artists to beautify the area around or visible from the bike track. Route 75, for example, which links the Clyde Coast with Glasgow is officially signposted as Airdrie to Bathgate Railway Path and The Scuplture Trail owing to the group of 12 sculptures commissioned for the old railway path. One of the local favourite artworks is Fruit Barra, a typically Scottish pisstake referring to the lack of facilities along the route. Sculptor Scott McGowan was helped in his creation by local school children who provided the models for some of the fruit, which were painted their respective colours. Sadly the paint has been eroded in just a few short years.
A more robust sculpture is Jerry Ortmans’s imposing Stone Column that appears along the Colliers Way, a 23-mile rural route that leaves the Kennet and Avon Canal at Monkton Combe before meandering through the countryside along a disused railway line. Ortmans has a reputation for conjuring up interesting, and often precariously balanced images, which require different materials to work together to support the structure. The Stone Cloumn is formed by seven stacked boulders reflecting the geological strata of the area and commemorates the pioneering work of local geologist William Smith (engineer for the Dorset and Somerset Canal).
If biggest is best then the Samphire Tower by Jony Easterby and popular Welsh public artist Pippa Taylor is in the running for the Network’s most impressive innovation. The 33 foot tower houses a telescope, plus several paintings, and oozes nautical themes, which is hardly a surprise seeing as you’ll find it along the Chalk & Channel way passing through the Kent Downs, linking Dover and Folkestone.
There are currently over a hundred public artworks to be enjoyed along the National Cycle Network, most of which can be viewed online at the Sustrans Artwork Database. The diversity of artistic expression (there is poetry, mosaics, and painting on display, as well as sculpture) and unbridled imaginations that have been unleashed on the public make the Network one of the most impressive, and surely one of the longest, public galleries anywhere on earth.
When Sustrans initiated the ‘Art & the Travelling Landscape’ programme it envisaged using “artwork to create landmarks, celebrate local characteristics, engage with local communities and make for enjoyable and memorable journeys.” With over 232 million trips made on the Network in 2005 (spare a thought for the poor souls who did all the counting!) there is little doubt that the community has been engaged with these artworks. And as every artist knows, just having your work out there and knowing that it’s being appreciated is reward in itself.
Most of the artworks along the Network were jointly commissioned through Sustrans and local authorities. Artists who are interested in contributing work should contact Sustrans or their local council with details of their proposal. For anyone needing a little inspiration it couldn’t be easier to get those creative, as well as those muscle juices flowing. You know the dril!
With so much artwork on display and half the population now living within a mile of the National Cycle Network it’s time to take your exercise whilst browsing Sustrans’ incredible moving gallery. At your own pace, of course.
