Placemaking: The Past, Present, and Future of Public Sculpture and Urban Regeneration

This one-day academic symposium brings together new research from some of the leading voices in the history of public sculpture and its role in energising community-formation, urban regeneration, and civic pride.

Placemaking gives new emphasis to public sculpture used to create distinctive, much-loved and used civic spaces such as market-squares and transport hubs.

There is a well-developed scholarly and public appreciation of public sculpture in domestic settings, principally in the context of post-war social housing. This symposium extends these debates into other spaces where architecture and sculpture collide – such as shopping centres, peripheral landscapes, interventions in brownfield sites, informal memorials, and ecclesiastical and civic buildings.

This event has been organised in partnership with the Twentieth Century Society and forms part of our Research Season – Bradford 2025: The Power of Public Sculpture, supported by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.

Call for participation

Accessibility

We want to make it as easy as possible for all to attend, so please get in touch with research@henry-moore.org if you have any access needs that you would like to discuss before the event.