Looking east

When I was appointed Head of Public Art for UCL in 2017, one of the first things I did was talk to people about what public art could be. I think there can be a certain perception of what public art is – people often equate public art with very large, not very inviting, or not very well-conceived, sculptures or big statues. I don't see it as being just a series of large, permanent works.

The principle behind public art at UCL is that artists will be guided by and reflect on who UCL is: our research, our academics, our students. But also, very importantly, they’ll consider where we sit within London and globally.

Creating artwork is a really valuable way of generating dialogues. Artists ask questions and explore ideas in a different way. Likewise, to be a successful researcher, you have got to be incredibly creative. Combining artistic and academic skills can generate all sorts of really interesting results – bringing in artists might even lead an academic to explore their research differently. And without doubt, the artists take away a lot of new knowledge.

We’re always looking at ways for artists and academics to reach the communities that might inform their research or that their research might have an impact on. It's really important that there's a three-way exchange taking place – I call it a ‘tripartite relationship’. There are different degrees of how this relationship can work; with permanent artworks, artists usually have more autonomy, because they’re being asked to make a work in response to their learnings about something. Then there's the other extreme, where the artists, academics and communities are co-creating work. For UCL, public art is about the whole breadth of different relationships with UCL's work that artists can be involved in.

Choosing what art to commission comes from really understanding what’s happening with the campus – looking at the physical opportunities a building provides, as well as what activities a building will house. Each building or project has a steering group, which includes colleagues from UCL Estates as well as academics. But fundamentally, the artworks should make you pause and consider the issues that they're exploring.

One of the things I've always been really focused on is how we work with artists to make something that genuinely invites people to engage with UCL who would never have done so before – or to physically go onto the campus and seek out the work. We have a responsibility to our audiences to be disruptive and creative, and maybe challenging. We’re asking people to think about the work. This applies to our Bloomsbury campus; to projects like the new neuroscience centre at Gray’s Inn Road and the Pears Building, where we have significant public art programmes; and to UCL East.

All of the art at UCL East is exploring the question "What is UCL East about". And UCL East, and all its faculties, is about what the future of living in the world should be - examining issues like ecology, technology, robotics, urbanism, culture. We've looked at the whole building and chosen works based on what will be happening in the different spaces.

UCL East is one of a number of extraordinarily large institutions that have recently moved into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. We’re in the London Borough of Newham, which has been through a lot of change since even before the 2012 Olympic Games. So it's really important that our work with communities is also a key part of why and how we work with artists. All the artists involved in our Trellis programme are from east London or have a relationship with east London. Emma Hart, Larry Achiampong and David Blandy have lived in or are from east London. And they’re also Slade School of Art alumni, which wasn’t a requirement for their appointment – but their ideas were so relevant and engaging.

One of the key public art programmes for UCL East is the Provost’s Art Prize, which began under Professor Sir Michael Arthur, former UCL President and Provost. It’s since been supported by current President and Provost Dr Michael Spence. The prize recognises a small number of undergraduate and postgraduate alumni from the Slade School of Fine Art, who each receive a £2,000 prize. Sometimes we select a work from a winner’s degree show, and sometimes we invite the artist to create a new work. These works are exhibited across the campus and the collection will grow every year. In the future, the collection might become thematic and expand to specific mediums.

The amazing team I work with at UCL East also lead UCL’s cultural and community engagement programmes. We want people to see UCL East as a local resource, whether they're students or not. To that end, we’re looking at what events and activities should be taking place to ensure we’re constantly inviting people to come into the buildings. We want people to feel that UCL is something that could be for them – it’s about creating a place that makes people feel welcome.

Art can take years to develop. In the six weeks before UCL East opened, I was installing four years’ worth of work. I think the future for UCL East is really exciting. I’m working with the Creative Content Group, which brings together cultural programmers across the East Bank, to look at how we can work together. We’ve already done some performance work in the Marshgate building with the BBC incorporating Gaia and involving young people.

The future is about how we can work in partnership with other organisations across the East Bank; animating the UCL East buildings; and commissioning work that creates a link between us and the waterfront. Now that students are on campus, we’ll be able to better understand how the building is used, and create work in response. Beyond UCL East, the UCL bicentennial will be a major priority – looking at the Main Quad, and exploring how artists can be involved in new campus developments and upgrades.

Sam Wilkinson is Head of Public Art at UCL

• Find out how to visit UCL East