Martyn Evans - Creative Director, Landsec UK
Art and Other Futures
In this episode I’m talking with Martyn Evans, Creative Director at Landsec with responsibility for developing and delivering the company’s public art and cultural engagement programmes. From the annual commissions on fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square to the Angel of the North or a Banksy appearing in Cheltenham, public art projects are the most visible and accessible manifestations of contemporary art practice in our society. They are also uniquely divisive, sometimes becoming well loved icons of communities and places, they can also be reviled stoking anger, protest or...
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Francesca Anfossi - Rochester Square: art, garden, food
Art and Other Futures
In this episode I’m talking with Francesca Anfossi, artist and co-founder of Rochester Square in London. In 2016 Francesca and her partner Eric bought Rochester Square a derelict plant nursary in Camden, North London and established a dynamic Ceramics Studio and Garden dedicated to socially engaged projects and artistic collaborations. Drawing together the central elements of Francesca’s creative practice. Today Rochester Square is a thriving creative community supporting artists to make new work, encompassing a kitchen garden and community resource offering open days, schools workshops,...
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Caroline Norbury - Creative UK: Strengthening the Creative Industries
Art and Other Futures
In this episode I'm speaking with Caroline Norbury CEO and Founder of Creative UK. Creative UK as founded in 2021 with the objective of supporting creative businesses across England by connecting them to the money, markets and networks they needed to grow. The Creative Industries are among the most successful sectors in the UK’s economy contributing more than £124bn gross value in 2022 and employing more 15-29 year olds than any other sector. Despite this value and success the future of the creative industries is under threat from the dismantelling of primary and secondary arts education...
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Leslie Ramos: Philanthropy and Fundraising for the Arts
Art and Other Futures
In this episode I'm speaking with Art Historian and Philanthropy Advisor Leslie Ramos. Leslie's extensive experience around philanthropy, fundraising and patronage for arts organisations led her to found The Twentieth - an arts and philanthropy advisory. Alongside numerous roles working with non profits, in 2023 she published Philanthropy in the Arts: A game of give and take with Lund Humprhies. We spoke at her home in London about the ways arts organisations of all sizes can better attract private giving and the importance of supporting grass roots culture. LEARN MORE:
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Elinor Morgan, Artistic Director Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art: Museum Communities
Art and Other Futures
In this episode I'm speaking with Elinor Morgan, a writer and curator and Artistic Director at MiMA - the Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art. For more than 10 years MIMA, part of Teesside University, has been at the forefront of producing ideas and programmes transforming the ways that museums operate and interact with their communities and publics, radically changing approaches to working with collections and mission of the museum. In 2014 under the directorship of Alistair Husdon, the institution apodted the principals of Arte Util – useful art – a conception of art and...
info_outlineIn this episode I’m talking with Martyn Evans, Creative Director at Landsec with responsibility for developing and delivering the company’s public art and cultural engagement programmes.
From the annual commissions on fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square to the Angel of the North or a Banksy appearing in Cheltenham, public art projects are the most visible and accessible manifestations of contemporary art practice in our society. They are also uniquely divisive, sometimes becoming well loved icons of communities and places, they can also be reviled stoking anger, protest or disenfranchisement. The evolving use and role of public art is equally fluid, shifting between temporary and permanent, memorial, celebration, social critique, decoration and activism. Public art also plays an important role in articulating how we define public space in an increasingly privatised world and the debates we have about our history and culture.
I spoke to Martyn at Landsec’s head quarters in Central London, talking about the trajectory of his career and approach to developing cultural programmes - his priorities at Landsec and how he’s working to change the ways developers understand working with art.