Bournville College Public Art Project
EC Arts have been commissioned by Bournville College to produce a public art project for their Centenary celebrations in 2013.
The new £66 million Bournville College Longbridge Campus designed by Architect Salim Hussain, from Birmingham-based firm Broadway Malyan opened in October in 2011 following six years of development. Back in 2005, tragically the Longbridge car plant in Birmingham closed down after over 100 years of production. Inspired by the opportunity to support the Longbridge area, Norman Cave, Principle & Chief Executive of Bournville College decided to relocate to this historic 400-acre site and appointed Broadway Malyan’s specialist Education team to prepare concept designs for their new £66 million campus. The design addressed the complex issues of delivery of a Further Education building – supporting flexible learning models that need to quickly adapt to changing curricula; a varied curriculum including subjects as diverse as history to hairdressing; and different teaching methods such as conventional didactic teaching methods and more vocational training. In general, colleges require a large proportion of ground floor access, both for public access to cafes, shops, public libraries and also to cope with the logistics of delivery to workshop teaching facilities.
Built on the site of the former MG Rover works, the Bournville College Longbridge Campus is part of a £1 billion St Modwen regeneration project to transform the area.
Bournville College has historical depth that is revolutionary; beginning in 1899 with Sir George Cadbury and Cadbury Brothers Ltd, when they initiated an educational ‘day release’ programme for Cadbury workers with the aim to improve their health and well being through at first physical education and later skills enhancement. The public art strategy aims to consider the significant history of Bournville College, Longbridge what that means today and how it can take us into the future.
St Modwen have planned public art installations for Austin Park and other areas within the development as part of a long term strategy; the Bournville public art project aims to respond to and compliment this strategy.
More information and updates to follow as the project progresses.
Phase One: October 2012 – March 2013
Phase Two: April – June 2013
Phase Three: June – September 2013
Expected completion: September/October 2013
