What Next?

The Wonders of Weston launched yesterday.

What next?

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post about the future of the town, although at the time I wasn't really sure about the questions I was asking, let alone what the answers might be, but perhaps the Wonders of Weston could be part of what I was looking for.

The Sea Change project, which funded the Wonders of Weston, was intended to promote the regeneration of seaside towns by investment in cultural projects. The artists involved, Ruth Claxton, Tim Etchells, Lara Favaretto, Tania Kovats, raumlaborberlin and Wrights & Sites have set us a challenge. They've laid a foundation that we can build on, but how we go about it is up to us, and much will depend on public reactions to their work.

What do you think?

Where do we go from here?
                                                    
Cross-posted at Random Bloggages

...Who's Paying For That Then?

I spent part of this afternoon watching work on Lara Favaretto's Without Earth Under Foot.

I wasn't alone, although a fair proportion of the other watchers were involved in the Wonders of Weston in some way. Most of the rest came, saw and went away again without passing comment.

I did have a brief conversation with one of the audience, however, and it went something like this:-

    Him: What's going on here?

    Me: It's a new artwork.

    Him: Oh, Christ! Who's paying for that then?

He did seem reassured when I told him that the money was coming from the government via CABE rather than from our council tax, but he didn't say much else.

I wasn't particularly surprised by this, as I think most of us are expecting the source of funding for this project to be one of the first things that people will ask about. Once we get past that, how will they react to the artworks themselves? It's not long before we find out.