Cup Sculpture

Cup Sculpture can be found on Clough St. Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

The piece has been in situ for over a year now, longer than many public, artistic interventions being commissioned. The piece can be seen as a success in as far as the success of a work of art can be measured without an intensive period of evaluation, research and public consultation.

Guidelines for Public Art can be found at http://www.publicartonline.org.uk/

taken from those guidelines:

"The work or contribution is likely to be commissioned and created specifically for the development. In many cases it will be developed in collaboration with the architect or designer and in consultation with the users of the site.
'Public Art' refers to any contribution by artists in a publicly accessible location.

Public 'ownership' of the resultant art is important for its long-term acceptance and life. In some projects community involvement in the design and realisation of the artwork (under the direction of an artist skilled at working with groups of people) may assist in the community taking ownership of the artwork and thereby reducing the risk of vandalism or wanton damage ."

The cup sculpture can be regarded as a successful piece of public art, as it adheres to many of the guidelines set out by policy makers. In particular: the work has been created specifically for the site, and is relevant to the site and its users, as the piece is located on a market site where market stall holders and customers regularly drink from polystyrene cups. The project has evolved over a period of more than a year; The interesting point here is that the sculpture works equally well at this time of year (winter) as it does in summer, when the branches (or structure of the sculpture) grows leaves. For this reason it is worth visiting the piece periodically over the year to watch its transformation.

It is unclear whether this is an intervention by one artist or whether this is, in fact, a collaboration between the artist and the public, but the longevity of the project and its ability to adapt to its surroundings shows it to be a success.

An evaluation toolkit for Public Art has been set up by IXIA - more details http://www.ixia-info.com/