Art and the NewTown – Excavating the Future
The Art and the New Town programme was a partnership between Essex County Council, Harlow Council and Harlow Renaissance as part of the ECC ‘Genius Loci’ (‘Spirit of Place’) arts initiative across Essex. This sought to pair artists with major local developments to ensure an artistic input at an early stage. In Harlow, this saw the appointment of the artist Roman Vasseur to develop a strategy for the integration of art into the Town Centre North development as well as to curate a series of events and performances.
Roman worked alongside the town centre development team to produce an Art Strategy for implementation alongside the creation of new retail and leisure facilities in Harlow Town Centre. Although the Stockland scheme did not proceed in 2009, the strategy document remains valid and will be utilised as part of any new development going forward.
An exciting series of arts projects and events took place in Harlow in November and December 2008. They provided an opportunity for residents and visitors to explore the unique history and future of Harlow.
Art and the new Town was a series of temporary visual arts projects and public discussions for Harlow which featured artists: Diann Bauer, Amanda Beech, Chris Evans, Alison Gill, Pil anad Galia Kollectiv, Wayne Lloyd, Mike Ricketts, The Serendipity Group and Roman Vasseur.