Showcase City - ACE254.2

Newspaper headlines about events in Birmingham. Pam Hogg, Fashion Designer, with group of men dressed in "space suits". Pipe Band. Spacemen walking beside horse-drawn float. Commentary describes "the honeymoon project – marrying the Statue of Liberty to the statue of Christopher Columbus in Barcelona". Giant eternity ring being carried along canals and streets of Birmingham. Antoní Miralda, the artist who initiated the project. Members of the public putting their own rings inside the giant one. Chus Bures, Jewellery Designer. People in fancy dress, street entertainers. Pat Sever, Birmingham Councillor, talking about Birmingham as an international city. View over Birmingham, a city "keen to give itself a new international image". The new International Convention Centre (ICC), funded with European money, one per cent of which was earmarked for arts projects. Commentary talks about "per cent for art" policies being adopted by local authorities in Britain. Vivien Lovell, Director, Public Art Commissions Agency, explaining how she argued the case for this policy in Birmingham. Ron Haselden’s neon sculpture, Flight of Birds (aka Aviary, 1988); commentary explains that artists were only involved at a late stage. Deanna Petherbridge explains her commission to do a mural on the outside wall of the concert hall, says that she had no idea what sort of décor was due to be added, and was horrified to find a row of planters installed where they obscured the view of part of her work. The completed mural. Petherbridge talks about other problems with the way the artists were expected to contribute. Alexander Beleschenko’s stained glass design (1991) which was "not incorporated into the glazing into the building" and thus rather gets lost among other features. Petherbridge talks about lack of communication between artists and architects. Exterior of the building. Petherbridge VO believes the ICC building is "flawed" and says that this made it even more difficult for artists to work with it.