Launch of Inspiring New Book on the Built Environment and Public Space

Announcing the publication and launch of an essential resource for anyone involved in the built environment, regeneration, urban design, and the arts.

(PRWEB) July 7, 2004 -- Thursday 8th July 2004 at 4pm will see the national launch in Leeds of a critical new book on the public realm published by Public Arts.

The launch will be attended by Terry Hodgkinson, Chair, Yorkshire Forward; Adrian Friedli, Director, Visual Arts and Literature, Arts Council England, Yorkshire; and Helen Farrar, regional representative of CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment).

The book, entitled People Making Places: Imagination in the Public Realm, is about an imaginative approach to improving our built environment and public spaces. It tracks two years of intense activity of the People Making Places programme: over 25 events, seminars, workshops, and arts-based 'street transformations, involving professionals and non-experts, schoolchildren and councillors, artists, planners and architects, top practitioners and the general public.

People Making Places is a Yorkshire-based programme that combines creativity with realism. It aims to challenge standard definitions, working methods, and barriers to change. Managed by Public Arts and based at The Orangery in Wakefield, the programme engages an unusually broad range of people in projects across the region.

With a foreword by Terry Hodgkinson, and contributions from Will Alsop, Annie Atkins, Alan Simpson and Robert Powell among others, this book will quickly become an important reference tool. It showcases design work by Alsop Architects, Jan-Erik Andersson, Trudi Entwistle, Walter Jack, Whitelaw Turkington, and others ... including Yorkshire schoolchildren.

The book has been imaginatively produced by Design Definition, a design and marketing studio based in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

As well as describing the programme, thoughtful articles discuss the ideas behind it, and set this particular approach into a context of national policy and practice. Fully illustrated, and with a useful list of sources and resources, People Making Places is lively and essential reading for anyone involved in the built environment, regeneration, urban design, and the arts.

Notes to Editors:
Launch will take place on Thursday 8th July, 5-7pm at Round Foundry Media Centre, Foundry Street, Leeds LS11 5PQ. There will opportunity for photographs throughout the event. Images from the event will be available for distribution from Friday 9th July onwards. Further information, interviews and photo opportunities can be arranged through Public Arts' media management team:

Tracey Johnson
Design Definition Limited
Suite 4 Regent Chambers
1-3 Regent Street
Barnsley
S70 2EG
Tel. 01226 287 420
Mob. 07956 699 648

Contact details for Public Arts
Stephen Dolman
Public Arts
The Orangery
Wakefield
WF1 2TG

Telephone   01924 215550
Fax      01924 215560

Public Arts
Since 1986 Public Arts has been working with artists and other professionals to improve the quality of public spaces and buildings in Yorkshire and elsewhere, taking the lead in encouraging the involvement of artists in the early stages of regeneration and building projects. It offers services and programmes in education and training, consultancy, and commissioning.

Based at the Grade II* listed Orangery in the heart of Wakefield, Public Arts has an extensive range of clients and projects including community arts activities, landmark pieces of public art, and public art and arts strategies.

An independent company and registered charity, Public Arts acknowledges financial support from Arts Council England, the Joint Services Committee of West Yorkshire Grants, and Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.

People Making Places
'People Making Places is a Yorkshire-based programme dedicated to Architecture, Art, and the Built Environment. The programme aims to improve regional demand and capacity for high quality urban design by linking communities and professionals, experts and non-experts, through an integrated programme of activities.

The programme is managed by Public Arts and based at The Orangery, Wakefield. It is delivered regionally through wide-ranging collaborations linked to selected sites where development is planned, possible, or underway. The programme includes elements for anyone involved in or affected by urban design. Between June 2002 and June 2004, there have been over 30 events involving over 900 people, as well as 'street transformation projects in seven Yorkshire towns, experienced by thousands of residents and visitors. The next few months will include public talks, events for young people, a series of professional seminars and workshops, and The Orangerys annual Summer School.

Since 2002, the programme has received funding from CABE (Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment), Yorkshire forward, Arts Council England, Wakefield MDC, and the European Regional Development Fund.