'T' Turning diverse memories into Public Art:Community consultation in the Public Art process

Niel MacGregor, Director of the British Museum (2005) states: for individuals as for communities, it may be said that memory is identity. At the very least it is an essential part of it. All societies have therefore devised systems and structures, objects and rituals to help them remember those things that are needful if the community is to be strong - the individuals and the moments that have shaped the past, the beliefs and the habits which should determine the future. These monuments and aides-memoires point not only to what we were, but to what we want to be. The challenge to represent a local culture through archival research and demographic studies continues to provide impetus for my research. Ultimately my aim is to identify a most suitable process where a community through their experience of place can contribute their knowledge and inspire the artist to produce a public statement which reflects and informs the culture of place, past present and future. This paper through a collection of case studies based on my own art practice and that of other artists, discusses and illustrates the significance of community consultation in the creation of public art. It looks at a collection of artworks which reference history, resources, ethnic and multicultural diversity, and ultimately communicate the marriage of oral histories translated through both image and text.