I resigned in 1978 as a member Glenrothes Development Corporation after ten years and the town immediately advertised for another artist to take my place. Malcolm Robertson was appointed and worked there for twelve years. Since much of the major planning and development decisions had been made by the time he took up his post, he was less able to contribute at those crucial early stages. The town continued to spread its influence to other towns in the employment of artists. In 1981, after a visit to Glenrothes by the Principal Planning Officer and the Arts Officer of Runcorn, it appointed Diane Gorvin as town artist, a post she held for five years. Many new towns encouraged and funded community art projects, the products of which often spilled over into publicly sited art works. Telford, Corby and Northampton, among others, all had thriving community art groups.

The new town development corporations are being wound down and the towns handed over to local authority control. Regrettably there is a worrying pattern is emerging of disinterest on the part of the new local councils in the rich inheritance of public art. Those artists still employed at the time of the handovers have had their contracts ended and it seems that the art works themselves are at risk. A reluctance in some towns to maintain the works is becoming evident. In Peterborough, on the other hand, many of the sculptures have been removed from their street locations and placed in a sculpture park. The reason given for this dramatic change of policy is that the sculptures need to be protected from vandalism.

There cannot be any doubt that the new towns have played a major role in the development of public art practices in the UK. Several towns created collections of sculptures through the purchase of existing works and commissioning new contemporary works. These were often, but not exclusively, placed around the towns without any strong contextual reference. In the 60's and 70's many artists were beginning to demand more than this. They sought more and more to integrate their work with the built and social environment and to be involved, at the outset, with architects and planners in collaborative ventures. Pasmore's position at Peterlee must stand as one of the first and certainly the most important example of artist/architect collaborations in the post-war era. He wrote in 1969 " To sum up: urban design is essentially an architectural problem both in its practical and psychological function. The role of the artist therefore, should not have to go beyond that of specialised individuation. But at those times when town planning reaches a state of overwhelming magnitude in terms of quantitative, economic and technical considerations, the architectural factor (in its psychological function), may well have to be reinforced by collaboration with the other visual arts."

No other artist had been put in such a position of influence. It created the precedent for other towns to follow and particularly the setting up of the post at Glenrothes which was then replicated by towns old and new, both here and abroad. In these situations artists, by the very nature of their employment, were working collaboratively, not only with planners and architects, but also civil engineers and landscape architects. The integration of the art works into the very heart of the physical and social development of the towns became the imperative, expanding the conceptual framework for public art and thereby influencing its development. Unfortunately the arts councils of the UK did not show much enthusiasm for these progressive initiatives in collaboration by the new towns and the artists they employed. They were more interested to continue to promote only the individual artist and artwork rather than learn from the unique precedent created by Pasmore and the new town of Peterlee. From the fifties to the seventies, almost exclusively, the new towns were the places in Britain where new opportunities were created for artists and architects to work together to create new environments and redefine new forms of public art for our time.

David Harding
March '95