Gscene - James Ledward's - Blog

A huge turnout in the public ballot to select the concept for the proposed Aids memorial has overwhelmingly chosen Romany Mark Bruce’s sculpture as the people’s choice for the project.

With 887 valid votes cast, the results of the ballot are:

Pagoda Concept: 51 votes: Digital wall concept: 155 votes: Sculpture: 681 votes

Mark’s concept sees a modern landmark sculpture as the centrepiece of a memorial site, which would be a place of reflection and remembrance. The proposed location is New Steine Gardens in the heart of the gay village in Kempt Town.

The ballot gives the sculpture preferred concept status, which means that the artist will be offered a small grant to develop the idea into a final design. It is hoped that the design and development stage will be completed by World Aids Day 2007 on December 1, 2007, with the project completed and the artwork installed by World Aids Day 2008.

The votes were cast in a public ballot between September 3 and 23. Six comments were left on the REALBrighton message boards. In addition, the organisers received one request to reopen the shortlist and a further request to have a ‘reopen the shortlist’ option on the voting site. The Argus ran an online poll on the issue and found that approximately 62 per cent of its readers were in favour of the project.

The final design will be subject to planning consent, council permission and a final consultation with local people or residents living adjacent to the proposed site. Discussions have already taken place with the city council on how the project moves forward from here, and the project organisers will work with the council’s public art specialists to ensure that a suitable final piece of public art is successfully commissioned and installed.

Simon Burgess, Prospective Labour candidate for Kemp Town and chair of the Memorial Consultation Group, said: “There is plenty more work to do on the technical side but I’m so pleased that the community has spoken loud and clear in support of a memorial, and for one concept in particular. It’s terrific to see this bottom-up approach enthusing people - well done to all those who raised the money and have put so much time and effort into this project, not least the three design proposers.”

Lib Dem councillor Paul Elgood said: “When we opened the voting, we said we wanted a public debate on the issue, and we certainly got that! It has been an exciting process and we believe that Romany Mark Bruce’s design will provide the basis for the project to move to the commissioning stage. There is considerable development work still to be done as we were only choosing a concept design at this stage. We would like to thank all three proposers for their ideas and creative thinking. There is no doubt that this project has captured the community’s imagination and I think we’re on track to produce something very special.”

Paula Murray, Head of Art and Creative Industries, B&H Council said: “We congratulate the Brighton and Hove AIDS Memorial Group on their success to date in raising the funds for the establishment of a memorial and such a degree of positive public profile around their proposal. This memorial is proposed for a public place in a designated conservation area in the city. As such, there are a number of detailed issues that the council will need to resolve in partnership with the AIDS Memorial Group before seeking planning permission. We are confident we can work with the Memorial Group, responding to the clear mandate from the public to establish this memorial, in developing sufficiently robust and appropriate designs for the proposed site.”

The organisers would like to thank all three proposers who gave their time to put their ideas forward.

Additionally, they would like to thank REALBrighton and all the supporters of the project for their ongoing backing.



Back to the main gscene site

Labels: Brighton, kemptown, ???