Golden Square 2008 – 2010

“Art is like the sparkle that catches the eye when passing the jeweller’s shop window.  Would we have wanted to badge the new public square with a lump of art?  Art is in the “vibrant atmosphere which not only attracts people to work, live, play and visit but acts as a honey pot for creative businesses ranging from the current jewellery business base to arts and media” (Jewellery Quarter Regeneration Charter).  To have prioritised stand-alone art over good place-making would have skirted with nostalgia and memorialised what has gone, stilted the atmosphere by freezing future possibilities at this particular moment in time, and suffocated the future generations of artists, designers and makers who will take forward the district’s renaissance.”