Sculptor Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North looms above the A1 in Gateshead, visible for miles around. A Martian anthropologist would probably take it for some kind of religious icon. But what’s it doing there? Gateshead council’s art team say it’s there to “enhance the fabric of the urban framework, involving the public through the creative process, adding value and creating a sense of ownership”. Southern art critic Brian Sewell says it’s just “bad engineering”.
Almost a decade has passed since the Angel was unveiled, back in 1998, and it’s now become an accepted part of the landscape, familiar to anyone who drives along that stretch of the A1, and privately loved or hated without fuss. And the part it’s apparently played in the regeneration of once-deprived, once-boring Gateshead has become an inspiration for public art projects around the UK. Marie Nixon, an Arts Council North East communications officer, says, “The Angel of the North is so successful, it’s become a symbol not just for the north-east but for the whole of England. It’s recognised all over the world as well as all over the country. As well as the knock-on effects of building something that huge for local industrial works and steel works, the real benefits are in civic pride.”
In many areas of Britain robbed of traditional industries like mining and manufacture, civic pride is in short supply. Seeing public art as a way to reclaim some lost mojo, many local councils have attempted Angel-style projects. Down in the little Northumberland town of Newbiggin-by-the-sea, local agencies have hatched a plan to harness the power of public art. They’ve drafted in Sean Henry, a celebrated artist specialising in giant, solemn-faced bronze sculptures of people, to construct their very own Angel equivalent: a sculpture called Couple, which will perch on the end of a breakwater, staring out to sea. There are high hopes for the sculpture, which will be completed this summer. Garry Smith explains, “It’s part of a breakwater project in the region to give Newbiggin its beach back. They’re dredging sand from Skegness and bringing it back to the north-east. The idea is that the beach and couple will bring tourists from all over the world.”
At a 2004 conference, Richard Tibbott, a consultant who played a key part in Liverpool’s successful bid for the 2008 City of Culture, invoked the intangible assets that public art can provide. The Angel hasn’t created a single job, and visitor spending is non-existent. But perception is what’s important: changed perceptions of the north-east as vibrant, cultural hotspot, encouraging businesses and professionals to visit or even move to the area. That’s certainly what Newbiggin is hoping for. “There’s also an educational programme as well,” says Smith. “The idea is that the project team will go into local schools and educate kids about different aspects of the breakwater. It’s not just being plonked into the community’s lap in the summer, the idea is that there’ll be community ownership, they’ll love the project being in their region, and obviously environmentally the breakwater is massive for the region.”
But there has been fierce debate about the real, measurable value of public art. In a 2001 essay called ‘The Media Success of the Angel of the North’, public art expert Paul Usherwood poured scorn on the supposed transformation brought about by Gormley’s sculpture. He rejected the idea that the sculpture has transformed Gateshead. For Usherwood, any value created by the Angel is a matter of media hype, not real local improvements.
Marie Nixon insists that the Arts Council keep a careful eye on the public art they support, and have seen real results. Some of the vagueness around measurable results is due to the unique nature of each artistic project. “There are monitoring things around them but they’re individual to each work and each local authority. It definitely does have an impact on creating vibrant communities and helping people feel proud and attracting investment into an area.” She argues that evidence of the success of public art projects is in their enormous popularity with businesses as well as local people. “It’s very rare in our region for us to spend a great deal on public art, because people like them so much and they’re so successful that private enterprise want to pay for them because they want their name associated with them. Nowadays we’ll seed-funds and come up with designs, and then other people will pay for the actual work.”
The knock-on effects of Gateshead’s high-profile art projects – the Angel, the Baltic arts centre – can also be seen in the increase in creative businesses in the area. The local Arts Council now employs a dedicated member of staff to help creative workers such as artists and designers with setting up and running their own businesses. Nixon sees this as directly tied to the Labour government’s commitment to arts funding over the past 10 years, and there’s no doubt that the Arts Council is firmly committed to the concept of regeneration through art and creativity.
But both Nixon and Smith agree that an artwork alone will not provide an instant fix to an area’s problems. Smith says, “The idea is that it is to help the whole of the region. It’s not just one particular element, the idea of Couple and the breakwater is a combination. The breakwater is crucial to the region on the environmental factor and then you’ve also got the tourism angle for Couple, so I think it’s important to integrate the whole process together. The idea is to rejuvenate the region, that’s paramount.”
