Galashiels Public Sculpture Project - Public Consultation
The brief
I delivered a public consultation online and at a series of events in Galashiels featuring the work of blacksmith Agnes Jones.
My role
To engage with the public so that audiences can share their opinions of the work and on public sculpture in general.
I created a fun method for the engagement activity which involved the public sharing their live reaction to the sculptures placed on the street by picking a ‘feeling word’ from a selection on display.
Each of the words was created visually in the style of an artist who uses text in their work (such as David Shrigley). The feeling words selected were based on an instrument that is used to measure emotional reactions called The Geneva Emotion Wheel.
The feeling words were pinned to a large board, and the public was then encouraged to take part in a structured survey. The survey was also replicated online. In addition I ran a consultation to shape the programming of The Little Arts Hub - an artist-run community space in central Galashiels.
The result
An Excel log and photography of all responses was created.
"We were looking for a way to engage with the public which made them feel comfortable, but also increased the diversity of views we captured about outdoor artwork.
The method James proposed moved away from the traditional survey to a more visually exciting way of capturing what the public thought.
He quickly built rapport with the people he interacted with, and the 'feeling word' game allowed us to more easily move into a structured conversation, the data from which will help to build a case for increasing the number of outdoor sculptures in the region.
It was a pleasure to work with James and I hope to work with him again soon."
Kate V Robertson
