Public Art Spaces
{Sue Boucher}

Earlier in August I participated in a tour of public art around Melbourne, organised by the City of Whittlesea. Not being familiar with the origins or locations of some of Melbourne's Public Art works I was keen to attend and was surprised to discover only one other artist on board. Arts Officer's from local councils of greater Melbourne filled the other seats and as we progressed it became obvious that most of the sites we attended had been supervised and tendered through local council. Hence the focus for the day centred around public value, community needs, safety standards, ongoing maintenance, collaboration and of course aesthetics got a mention.

Unfortunately the aesthetics of the art work was not the important area for comment, priority was given to the development of community ownership and attitudes to the sites. Most of the sites had evolved through resident discussion and participation of to allow for the appropriate development to match community needs.


Railway Place Viewing Platform

The most successful of these sites was completed by the City of Melbourne, along with the artist Bernice McPherson and the architect Craig Perry. In what turned out to be a project involving years of discussion and negotiation of all the parties involved, including the PTC, the final result was The Railway Place Viewing Platform. In Railway Place in Notrh Melbourne this platform makes a break in the scrub that lines the fence to allow the viewer an incredible experience of 180 degrees of train spotting, ship spotting, or taking in a large chunk of Melbourne history. Constructed from railway tracks and recycled materials the signal tower to one side of the platform has been modified for safety reasons.

The Tower at the Cheetham Wetlands, Point Cook, designed by Bill Kelly also deserves a visit as a site successfully integrating with the environment

Self-evaluation of the 90's and planning for the beginnings of a new century is hot on everyone's mind. How are we going? Are we doing alright? What is your opinion?

Exhibitions around are focusing on life, the everyday, the beauty of diversity in our lives, to examine the way we live now and as a means to document this dispirit set of rules.

Conferences are focusing on public space, urban planning or the lack of planning and the role the community has within this development of space. It seems everyone is wanting to create their mark before it all runs out.

The romance of the archetypal artist is no longer enough to survive in this late stage of the century, where skills are required to promote, budget, plan and even organise the time to create from the soul.

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