About
EC Arts are an independent not for profit public art organisation, we are currently producing our 18th project in 6.5 years. Our projects have varied in scale; from a £450,000 public art strategy for Digbeth coach station to a small hoardings intervention on Moseley Road. We write and produce public art projects within a variety of commissioning contexts; regeneration, social housing and large scale temporary interventions. Our socially engaged site specific approach and philosophy is always the same. We commission artists and give them the space and room they need to have artistic autonomy.
We strive to engage people within the arts by conceiving and producing multidisciplinary public art projects, events and exhibitions.
We are passionate about urban interventions and reactivation through ephemeral and permanent site specific art.
Our philosophy is driven by a desire to create unique opportunities for artistic interposition and transformation of public space; by doing this EC Arts projects aim to contribute fresh perspectives and provide unique experiences of the built environment that aim to challenge assumptions about the spaces we inhabit.
We work with artists in a range of different ways and art forms to bring creativity into new or existing buildings, developments or public spaces. We work with diverse cross sector partners to create projects and commission artists to explore pre conceived notions of public art within a variety of settings including temporary and permanent urban interventions, regeneration and social housing.
Above: 48Sheet pilot project short film
Artists work within public art schemes help to physically revitalise our towns and cities increasing the aesthetic quality of urban design and reinforce our sense of place.
Cities live or die by their creativity… Charles Leadbeater
EC Arts est. 2006 by Claire Farrell Creative, Curator and Producer
FRSA, MA Visual Communication (Birmingham Institute of Art & Design)
Above: retail unit at The Mailbox, Birmingham, transformed into a creative space for artists and members of the public as part of EC Arts 48Sheet 2012 project.
“By running a series of artistic projects in the city of Birmingham, EC-Arts have made it their mission to change the public perception of the built environment. In giving a group of artists a public platform to display their work, they aim to transform the everyday into something extraordinary” Urban Ghosts
Awards
Shortlisted for RICS Design and Innovation Award (National Express BCS and Digbeth Public Art Strategy) 2012
Shortlisted for RICS Community Benefit Award (Digbeth Public Art Strategy, National Express) 2012
Winner of the Arts and Business Cultural Champions Award for 48Sheet project 2012
Winner of Birmingham Made Me Most Creative Exhibit Award 2012
Winner of Birmingham North LPU West Midlands Police Community Service Award 2012
Winner of the Jaguar Land Rover Arts and Business Award for specific Community Engagement 2009
Shortlisted for the Jaguar Land Rover Arts and Business Award Young People Award 2009
Above: EC Arts project ‘Beautify the City’ (Birmingham Central Library) by Lucy McLauchlan
EC Arts is a Founder Member of Idea Birmingham (Think and Do Tank) initiators of Birmingham Made Me Design EXPO spearheaded by Birmingham City University.
Project portfolio
We have worked on public art projects over the last 6.5 years with a combined value of 1.355,000. Within this time EC Arts have provided over 200 artist commission opportunities.
EC Arts portfolio of 15 projects in the last 6 years include; transforming inner city wasteland in 2007 into an urban gallery for experimental structures produced by artists & architects; writing and producing a £450,000 public art strategy for National Express Digbeth coach station gateway redevelopment; utilising city centre iconic buildings & development hoardings as a canvas for public art; questioned the notion of Dead Space and the function of public Libraries; transformed the engine room of a working fire station for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra String Quartet to perform a site specific composition inspired by the urban landscape with the aim to take classical music out of traditional venues and into the heart of Ladywood community ; curator of SIO ‘Tamperine’ exhibition suspending 97 tambourines from the ceiling of a retail space; Curator of English Accent Irish Soul exhibition inspired by stories shared by members of the Irish community through an oral history project; conceived and produced 48Sheet and following a successful pilot project utilising four billboards as creative platforms for artists work in 2010, produced a much larger scale project 48Sheet 2012, transforming the city of Birmingham and parts of the region into a unique urban gallery, by utilising 100 billboards for visual art by regional, national & international artists. Curator of Birmingham Made Me I&L1 Design Expo and creator and producer of the ‘Whistle chandelier’ made from approximately 450 ACME whistles for Idea Birmingham.
