Meanwhile I was contributing ideas for art as a member of the various design teams in housing, commercial, industrial, landscape and civil engineering developments. Soon a clause was inserted into all planning briefs handed on to the design teams which stated that, 'the artist is to be consulted at every stage of development.' Another precedent had been created. As the scale and scope of opportunities increased the development corporation set up one-year postgraduate 'apprenticeships' for graduating art students to work with me. Later I was also able to offer training to 16 year old school leavers.

All of these things added a new aesthetic, creative and cultural layer to the town which in turn generated others arts activities particularly in theatre, performance and music. A centre was developed which offered housing and studios for artists to live and work and a 'writer's house' was set up which was offered, rent-free, annually to a different writer.

The term 'Town Artist' was coined by an acquaintance, Paul Millichip, (8) when I asked him to try to define my role at Glenrothes. I liked the sound of it and proceeded to promote it and, more importantly, to define it. A town artist had to be a contributing member of the planning department of a town, collaborate with the various design teams and be engaged on a long-term, full-time basis. This was not the artist as consultant nor, what was soon to be described as the 'artist-in-residence.' This was the artist as a fully functioning member of the staff employed to design and build a town. (9) Richard Cork's assessment was that, 'David Harding was able..... to produce a series of deliberately varied works for a community he grew to understand with exceptional intimacy........ they were all informed by a knowledge of the locality as it evolved and this sense of engagement compared very favourably with the suspicion which blighted other attempts at collaboration between artists and architects of the period.' (10)

Over the years numerous visitors came to Glenrothes to see at first hand how an artist could be fully employed in the development of a town. Many of these were staff from other towns, old and new. In 1973 East Kilbride engaged my first postgraduate assistant, Stanley Bonnar, creator of the herds of hippos roaming the streets of Glenrothes. He worked for East Kilbride for five years contributing sculptures and murals and worked as a member of the design team which prepared proposals for the 'never-to-be- built' Stonehouse New Town. In 1985 East Kilbride appointed Keith Donnelly, another artist with Glenrothes experience, as Environmental Art Officer. He is a member of the Planning Department and, while making his own art works, he has set up annual funding to employ younger artists on a variety of projects. He has set up several artist-residences and artists, such as Wendy Taylor, have carried out major commissions. Livingston appointed Denis Barns as Town Artist, in 1974. As well as his own work, he organised a number of commissions by well-established artists the most significant of which is "Wave Wall" by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Barns soon had over thirty people working for him as artists, tradesmen and labourers all housed in well-appointed studios and workshops. The whole enterprise came to be run as a business which he took out of the development corporation and set it up as a company to market art-works. The company was named "Town Art" which devalued the idealism of the original concept. Irvine took an entirely different approach employing a new artist-in- residence every two years, each with very different skills ranging from stained glass to printmaking. Stevenage employed Simon Jones, another product of the Glenrothes postgraduate scheme. His work centred on working with community groups. Peterborough appointed a town artist, Francis Gomilla, while at the same time implemented a 'Harlow policy' of purchasing and commissioning sculptures and placing them around the town. Milton Keynes commissioned numerous sculptures by artists such as Lilian Lijn, Bernard Schottlander and Wendy Taylor, as well as employing several artists in a variety of different roles. Brian Milne designed play areas with sculptures and equipment, while John Csaky designed large-scale landscape projects. The artist who created Milton Keynes' most famous sculpture, 'The Cows', was Liz Leyh. As a member of the community arts group, Inter-Action, she moved to Milton Keynes on a one-year residency funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1974. She remained a further three years funded by the development corporation running an open-door studio policy, inviting the participation of local people in numerous art projects. (11) Many of these activities were initiated by an officer, Cindy Hargate, of the town's Arts and Entertainment Group. Employing artists as part of leisure and recreation departments became more common in England. This was to be regretted as it diminished their ability to contribute as artists at key levels of decision-making. As members of planning and architecture departments artists had the opportunity to exert some influence at an early stage of developments, whereas in others they were limited to responding to finished plans and completed developments.