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

The objective of this paper is to analyse how sub-Saharan African students interpret and engage with public monuments in Northern England, specifically York and Liverpool. The focus is on issues related to colonial histories and power dynamics, reflecting narratives that may marginalise or erase the experiences of those visiting the UK from formerly colonised states. The paper is grounded in the Not My Hero project, a research and educational initiative involving six master’s students at the University of Bradford. The study draws on Photovoice and creative expression to explore how students contest statues and monuments in urban space. By photographing and responding to these monuments, students challenge the dominant narratives they reproduce. They voiced how such narratives often clash with their lived experiences, postcolonial identities, and academic studies. Through these interventions, monuments are not passive relics but inseparable elements of space, enabling critical analysis, the voicing of agency, and the advancement of decolonial discourse within education.

This paper shows how public sculpture can act as an agent in shaping identity and place, and how similar engagements influence memory formation among diaspora communities. It illustrates how monuments in urban spaces in the UK can both affirm colonial legacies and serve as platforms for critique and reflection. Ultimately, this paper argues that engagements with creative critique contribute to rethinking civic spaces, fostering more inclusive, critical, and decolonial understandings of history, and, at the same time, impacting our understanding of the past, present, and future.

Dr Maria Ambrozy is an academic, researcher, practitioner, and educator based at the University of Bradford. Her work focuses primarily on African, especially Rwandan, politics, cultural memory, and social change.

As part of her postdoctoral fellowship, she worked on two projects around Contested Pasts and Youth Leadership. Through collaboration with the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, EuroClio, and educators in sub-Saharan Africa, she developed a passion for exploring how monuments can foster dialogue on difficult topics.

She strongly believes that education is a two-way process; she views learning as a mutual exchange and takes great joy in discovering new ideas with her students.

Sculpture has played an important role in Lancaster University since its early days as a post-war ‘new university’. The first work to be installed on the purpose-built campus was Dual Form by Barbara Hepworth in 1969. This was followed in the 1970s with site-specific work by resident artists such as John Hoskin and Annelise Henecka, and has since been joined by commissions by northern artists such as Charles Hadcock and Shawn Williamson in the 1990s and 2000s. Initially chosen by an ‘Embellishments Committee’, which was overseen by the university librarian and consisted of the campus architects as well as student and academic representatives, debate over suitable artworks was often robust. This paper will contextualise educational artworks in campus settings, drawing on the Robbins Report of 1963, which called for universities to develop “cultivated men and women” alongside offering an academic education.

Considering Lancaster University’s range of sculptures and ‘embellishments’ – including unrealised ones – the paper will show public art was used to develop a sense of community, identity and cultural life and ask how attitudes towards sculpture on campus and its form and function have changed over time. It will conclude by highlighting that Lancaster University still plays a key role in the cultural life of the city more widely. Today, contemporary arts organisation Lancaster Arts oversees the university’s art collection, which continues to be used as an educational resource, as well as commissioning new works of art that encompass temporary and performative interventions into the campus alongside more permanent objects.

Dr Natalie Bradbury is a writer and researcher based in Greater Manchester interested in public art, post-war architecture, social history and education. She completed her PhD at the University of Central Lancashire in 2018 about the Pictures for Schools exhibitions, which provided original, affordable works of art for post-war schools. She has written and spoken widely about the scheme and its founder, artist and educator Nan Youngman, for academic and general interest audiences. She also writes regularly about contemporary art for publications such as Corridor8 and Art Monthly, particularly focusing on art designed to be experienced outside of a gallery context.

In 2022, housing association Notting Hill Genesis, the (re-)developer of Grahame Park, identified a series of concrete sculptures on the estate. Several of these were sited in areas due for imminent demolition, with a complete absence of readily available information (including in the London Borough of Barnet’s archive) about the provenance of these playful concrete figures and animals. Over the next two years a combination of archival research and community engagement led to the preservation of these sculptures, and their relocation in newly regenerated areas of the estate.

This paper will summarise the findings of this archival and community research, providing an historical overview of artist Brian Yale’s involvement in the design of play-structures and spaces throughout the planning of the estate in the early 1970s. The paper’s main focus will be the interaction between community members and the sculptures, and the capacity for relationships with modernist public sculpture to develop in the absence of an official designation of artworks as heritage assets. It will interrogate the extent to which individual relationships with, and memories of, Yale’s sculptures conform either to their original purpose within the estate’s design or their reappropriation within the regenerated urban landscape. The paper will argue for the need to embed community relationships with existing public art in placemaking practices, demonstrating the capacity for modernist municipal sculpture to shape understandings of space and home in an estate environment.

Ben Britton is a social housing professional with an academic background in post-war heritage. From 2022 to 2024 he was a researcher within the socio-economic team working on the regeneration of the Grahame Park Estate. During this time he led on the estate’s heritage programme, which included the identification and relocation of Brian Yale’s sculptures. He completed an MPhil in Heritage Studies at the University of Cambridge, writing a dissertation on community engagement with post-war public art. He has written articles on post-war public sculpture for The Modernist, the Courtauld Institute, the ‘White Heat of Modernity’ blog, and the Cambridge Review of Books.

This paper examines the commissioning of public sculpture for shopping centres in twentieth-century Britain. Emerging as a new commercial space in the mid-twentieth century, the shopping centre was also understood as a civic space in which shoppers could encounter and contemplate art. In post-war Britain, sculptors, architects and developers embraced the construction of new shopping centres as an opportunity to commission public sculpture that reflected a rapidly changing modern world. As this paper argues, the intentions for public sculpture were varied. Developers sought to generate civic pride amongst shoppers and citizens by commissioning and installing works by prominent sculptors whose work was more often installed at key arts and cultural institutions in major cities. In other instances, public sculptural commissions were used to humanise the unfamiliar architecture of the new shopping centre environment.

This paper draws on the papers of Franta Belsky to examine the sculptor’s commitment to making sculptures for commercial commissions that responded to conceptions of local identity and place, such as Totem 1977, a two-storey fountain in Manchester’s Arndale Centre. Despite the prominence of many public sculptures commissioned for post-war shopping centres, many have long since been damaged, sold or – in the case of Belsky’s Totem – destroyed. This paper examines the challenges of commissioning public sculpture for shopping centres, using archival material to retrace a post-war optimism for public sculpture and to explore the complexities of making sculpture for the public in commercial spaces that are often managed as private space.

Dr Ellie Brown is a researcher using art, architecture and design histories to examine the twentieth-century British shopping centre. She has recently completed a PhD at the University of Warwick funded by the AHRC Midlands4Cities DTP. Brown’s research draws on a plethora of visual material and objects – advertising, sculpture, interior design, photography, newspapers, illustration – to contextualise the construction of the shopping centre as both a space of consumption and a new way to consume the urban environment alongside social, political and economic shifts. Brown is a 2025 Research Fellow at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, researching Franta Belsky’s commercial commissions.

The artist Henry Collins made this comment about the murals that he and his wife Joyce had created for Sainsbury’s and British Home Stores (BHS) in the Spring 1975 edition of Concrete Quarterly. By this point in their careers they had been commissioned to create concrete and mosaic works for stores in Hitchin, Colchester, Gloucester and Newcastle as well as panels for subways in Colchester and a piece for Cwmbran in Wales. They would go on to produce many more, gradually evolving their working practice to create indoor murals made from wood.

Henry and Joyce’s work was entirely site specific; each piece researched and designed for its situation, whether that would be a supermarket entryway or a civic square in a new town. Joyce would visit each location by way of investigation and to look for inspiration in the local museums; ancient finds, fauna and flora, buildings and structures, historical figures and local industry – these would all feature in their designs. Fifty years on, what are the present circumstances of these retail based works and what of their future now the ‘spectators’ are increasingly online rather than on the high street? This paper will give an overview of their work and look at how it has fared; in-situ, in storage or relocated. As a comparison this paper will also look at the later pieces commissioned by BHS for their in-store restaurants; works never destined to be entirely public but instead occupying a more inaccessible retail space.

Lisa Brown is an independent researcher currently researching the mural works by husband and wife artists Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot. Her work has been supported by a research grant from The Paul Mellon Foundation, and more recently a bursary from the Business Archives Council. She has a passion for public art, particularly work sited in retail spaces and spends much of her spare time seeking it out to photograph. A photo-book of her images ‘Post-War Public Art’ was published by The Modernist Society in 2021. She regularly shares her photographs on Instagram and her writing on Substack.

Infinite Light – Ramadan Pavilion, created for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, is a temporary sculptural installation in Centenary Square, directly opposite the city’s Grade I listed City Hall. Co-designed by architectural designer Fatima Mejbil and artist Zarah Hussain, the pavilion explores the theme of connection through a double-arched form drawing on both Gothic Revival and Islamic architectural traditions. It creates a dialogue between Bradford’s historic civic centre and its contemporary, multicultural identity.

Set within a programme of city-wide regeneration, Infinite Light connects heritage, people, and place. Its design is rooted in the city’s architectural context, referencing arches as timeless symbols of passage and belonging. As a communal space, it draws people together through ritual and encounter, illuminated each evening during Ramadan to mark the breaking of the fast. At the same time, its vibrant colours and shifting presence between day and night invite all communities to engage, pause, and reflect.

This case study demonstrates how sculptural architecture can embody both universality and specificity: universal in its resonance with ideas of infinity and connection; specific in its grounding in Bradford’s communities and public realm. By reinterpreting heritage through a contemporary lens, the pavilion highlights the potential of public sculpture to spark civic pride, nurture dialogue, and contribute to cultural regeneration in urban spaces.

Fatima Mejbil is an internationally qualified architect based in Bradford, with over a decade of experience as a Lead Designer in the UK. She completed her Part III qualification at RIBA North West in 2019 and has since dedicated her career to delivering community-led regeneration projects in Bradford and across the UK. Known for her collaborative and ambitious approach, Fatima leads the design team at Faum Architecture to deliver innovative architectural solutions for the community in Bradford and beyond. Having trained across two continents, gaining experience in both the Middle East and the UK, Fatima’s design ethos reflects her deep appreciation for cultural heritage and her commitment to designing spaces and forms that honour tradition while embracing contemporary innovation. Her work draws on diverse influences, celebrating the richness of different cultures while building connections and creating a sense of belonging. Fatima’s designs balance cultural preservation with forward-thinking approaches, offering a fresh take on heritage in a modern context.

Fatima is also a passionate advocate for diversity and social impact within the built environment. She served as a mentor for aspiring professionals through Women in Architecture UK (WIA) and regularly contributes as a guest lecturer at the University of Bradford. She also contributes to regional development initiatives as a member of the Bradford Property & Economic Forum and as an ambassador for outreach programmes that serve under-represented young professionals in the industry. In her free time, Fatima channels her creativity into urban illustrations, blending traditional drawing while exploring digital techniques and AI. She also enjoys illustrating children›s books, showcasing her passion for storytelling and artistic expression. Fatima’s work exemplifies how architecture can celebrate cultural identities, build meaningful connections, and redefine heritage through a contemporary lens.

William Mitchell’s form of public art, created from concrete, glass fibre, brick, wood, and glass, fully engaged with the redeveloping urban landscapes of post-war Britain, from housing and shopping precincts to banks and cathedrals. The resulting murals and sculptures, sometimes incorporating water, light, and sound, visually juxtaposed the richness of ancient cultures, local traditions and themes with vibrant modernity. The relationships William Mitchell cultivated with architects, contractors and industry enabled the outcomes to become physically and emotionally entwined with the structure and function of these environments. Retaining a sense of immediacy, but directly relating to the scale, character, and circulation of the spaces they inhabited, yet sometimes needing to challenge or unmake a place for new and older local identities to emerge and co-mingle.

American Art Historian Dolores Mitchell noted that these types of commissions were obtained through word of mouth, created to strict construction deadlines, and constrained by budget and modular systems, but added to the technical knowledge of the era, with the outcomes individual in style but eclectic in approach; she concluded this was ‘art of the possible.’ In terms of placemaking today, physical, cultural, and social identities are recognised as vital in defining a place and supporting its ongoing evolution. Yet, with the redevelopment of post-war environments, many fully integrated artworks need to be relocated and reinterpreted. Examining specific William Mitchell works under threat, Dawn highlights the importance of inspiring stakeholders, whether local councils or commercial enterprises, to respect the creator’s original vision; so exploring new ways for the art to shape and reconnect human daily experiences, foster layered memories, and promote community cohesion.

Dr Dawn Pereira’s passion for often-overlooked public art has driven her to promote its interpretation, preservation, and commemoration. She is currently editing a monograph about William Mitchell, which details his ‘colourful crusade’ to humanise post-war urban landscapes across Britain and internationally. This year, through a Henry Moore Foundation Research and Travel Grant, she has revisited her PhD research, examining the role of the artist within the London County Council (1957-65). This has led her to collaborate with heritage, conservation and campaigning bodies, alongside custodians, to secure protection for existing LCC artworks and to develop innovative ways of showcasing this unique legacy to modern Londoners.

In 1949, as the Dutch city of Arnhem was still recovering from wartime devastation, municipal officials sought to revitalise it by organising a recurring exhibition of modern sculpture in the historic Sonsbeek Park. Inspired by a similar sculpture show held a year earlier in London’s Battersea Park, the first five editions of Sonsbeek followed a traditional format, featuring primarily bronze and stone works by internationally acclaimed artists such as Henry Moore.

The exhibition’s trajectory changed dramatically in 1971 when Wim Beeren, former curator at Stedelijk Museum, assumed directorship of the sixth edition. Under his curatorship, the exhibition shifted from a conventional sculpture display to a pioneering environmental biennale, redefining both the concept of public art and the institutional framework of art biennales.

This pioneering edition featured 98 artists who created participatory, site-specific works that engaged directly with their surroundings, encouraged public interaction, and sparked social, historical, and political dialogue. Crucially, the exhibition extended beyond the park’s boundaries to include land artworks in remote locations, fundamentally expanding both the geographic and conceptual scope of a biennale.

This paper examines how the 1971 Sonsbeek biennale established a revolutionary model for large-scale, outdoors site-specific art exhibitions. It argues that this transformation not only redefined public art’s capacity to engage communities but also demonstrated its potential as a catalyst for urban regeneration and the creation of meaningful civic and aesthetic discourse.

Meital Raz is an art critic and PhD researcher at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. Her research sits at the intersection of exhibition studies and politics of space, with a focus on environmentally and socially engaged exhibitions from the 1960s and 1970s.

Sculptor Petar Hadži Boškov (1928-2015) first encountered Henry Moore in 1955, when the British Council organised a touring exhibition of his works through socialist Yugoslavia. It inspired him to pursue education at the Royal College of Fine Arts and the Slade School of Fine Arts in London, where he studied with Moore, who also opened his debut exhibition at the Grabowski Gallery. Hadži Boškov soon returned to Skopje (now North Macedonia), and was commissioned to make many spomeniks, World War II monuments and memorials, across Yugoslavia. He continued to enjoy exhibitions across the UK, especially in Bradford, a city twinned with Skopje, from which one of his sculptures remains (neglected, undocumented) in the stores of Cartwright Hall. It remains hidden in plain sight, much like the Yugoslavian diasporic communities across Yorkshire and northern England.

This historic and ongoing relationship between Bradford and Skopje – and between Bradford and London, exemplified by Hadži Boškov’s touring exhibitions from the 1950s to the 1990s – is under-researched and under-represented. It is sustained today by the presence of Moore and David Hockney’s work in the Skopje Solidarity Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje (MoCA), formed after the earthquake there in 1963.

This talk connects the post-war public sculptures, and post–industrial landscapes, of Yorkshire and Yugoslavia, including never-before-seen material from the archives of the Henry Moore Institute, Universities of Leeds and Bradford – plus, the controversial Skopje 2014 urban regeneration project, exploring the political, cultural, architectural, and archaeological battle to build Hadži Boškov’s thrice-unrealised public fountain.

Jelena Sofronijevic is a producer, curator, writer, and researcher, working at the intersections of cultural history, politics, and the arts. Their independent curatorial projects include Invasion Ecology (2024); SEEDLINGS: Diasporic Imaginaries (2025); and Can We Stop Killing Each Other? at the Sainsbury Centre (2025). They produce EMPIRE LINES, a podcast which uncovers the unexpected flows of empires through art. They are also pursuing a practice-based PhD with Gray’s School of Art, curating exhibitions of Balkan and Yugoslavian/diasporic artists in British art collections.

Much of their research centres on pluralising representations of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE)/diaspora communities and cultures, particularly from the Balkans and Yugoslavia, and more constructive, contemporary histories of non-alignment. More widely, they seek to platform lived experiences and perspectives often marginalised or excluded from representation, especially in anti-colonial and environmental activism.

For centuries people have reflected on the social function of art – who is it for and how do we enjoy it? Heritage of London Trust has restored many public artworks over the decades and in recent years involved its Proud Places youth engagement programme in both the conservation and the celebration of public art.

This talk will cover the technical elements of heritage conservation but also look at the wider impact of these projects with the community. How can one bring back to life public artworks that have been long neglected, and how can we design new artworks to continue to engage future generations?

Dr Nicola Stacey has been Director of Heritage of London Trust for ten years and led numerous public art restoration projects across the city, including many post War artworks. In 2020 she launched Proud Places, a youth engagement programme focusing on alternative provision schools and young refugees. The programme has reached nearly 10,000 young people. Nicola has worked at the Museum of London and English Heritage, has a doctorate in archaeology and is Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Last year Stacey was named as one of the London Standard’s top 100 people shaping London.

Bridging teaching and practice, Tonkin Liu’s placemaking design approach has established a reputation for delivering award-winning projects that range from architecture to structures and from artworks to landscapes. Each project finds its creative origin in the project’s cultural context. The practice’s ambition has always been to bring people closer to nature. This is achieved through integrating nature into design solutions that see the building as a living entity responding and interacting with its environment and using symbols of nature to lift the human spirit.

Mike Tonkin qualified as an architect in 1989, the year he set up his practice; he graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1986 after receiving first-class honours at Leeds Polytechnic, having completed an apprenticeship as an architectural technician with training at Bath Technical College. His interest in nature led to his qualification as a landscape architect in 2014. He has taught for many years, including a decade at the University of Bath and as a unit master at the Architectural Association and the University of Westminster. He has been an external examiner for the master’s courses at UCL and a longstanding visiting critic. He completed his PhD in the Engineering Department at the University of Bath and is currently a visiting professor at the Manchester School of Architecture and Sheffield University.

Anna Liu’s architectural education began after a liberal arts education encompassing Chemistry and Comparative Literature at Smith College in 1987, completing her Master of Architecture at Columbia University in 1994 and her RIBA Part 3 in 2002. Her experience has drawn from working in the UK, China, Japan, where she discovered architecture, the US, where she grew up, and Taiwan, where she was born. Anna has been a Quality Review panellist for Euston HS2 Station and LLDC, has taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, Westminster, London Met and has examined at UCL Bartlett and Dundee. She is a Trustee of Open City, a Quality Review panellist for Camden, a member of the RIBA Awards Group, and a Visiting Practice Professor at Sheffield School of Architecture.

This paper explores how placemaking through public sculpture can reimagine memory, identity, and belonging by centring diversity and process-driven community engagement. Drawing on UP Projects’ experience in developing public monuments and memorials in close dialogue with communities, the paper will examine how collaboration shapes new approaches to art in the public realm. The focus of the paper will be The National Windrush Monument by Basil Watson. UP Projects worked with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities and the Windrush Commemoration Committee to lead the artist selection process, inviting nominations from over 250 curators and leaders in the Caribbean community, and facilitating extensive public engagement. The resulting monument, now at London Waterloo Station, pays tribute to the ambition and courage of the Windrush Generation.

UP Projects then commissioned artist Sonia E. Barrett’s digital Windrush memorial, which offered a radical and contemporary counterpoint to traditional state narratives. This project created a digital memorial space, creating a more participatory form of remembrance. Alongside this, the paper will reflect on our ongoing commission – the Anita Harding Memorial – highlighting how memorialisation can act as future building through reflecting diversity in the public realm. The paper will situate these case studies within wider debates on impermanence, change, and inclusivity in public art, referencing previous public learning events ‘Monumental Impact: How can public art create inclusive spaces?’ and ‘How can we rethink the memorial?’ Ultimately, the paper argues that public sculpture must move towards participatory,  process-driven and diverse forms of placemaking that disrupt traditional narratives and open space for inclusive identities in the public realm.

Emma Underhill is Founder and Artistic Director of UP Projects with over 20 years’ experience in curating and leading large scale, ambitious projects in the public realm. Under her leadership, UP Projects has gained an expansive reputation for progressive public art commissioning, robust and genuine community engagement methodologies and a commitment to artist development. She directs programmes including Constellations, digital commissions, and socially relevant public artworks. Recent projects include the National Windrush Monument by Basil Watson at Waterloo Station, major commissions with Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Sonia Boyce OBE, Jessie Brennan, and works for the Nine Elms Development. Emma also develops cultural and public art strategies for leading organisations and urban developments

Rachel Whiteread’s House 1993, commissioned by Artangel, has long been recognised as a defining work of contemporary British art. While extensively studied, House remains a critical reference for reflecting on the shifting structures of commissioning and reception that continue to shape public sculpture today. Emerging from the specific political and economic conditions of Thatcher’s Britain, including the Business Sponsorship Incentive Scheme and the increasing entanglement of public art with regeneration and private sponsorship, House crystallised a turning point for contemporary public sculpture in the UK.

Thirty years on, the work provides a lens through which to historicise this shift in the commissioning of public sculpture in Britain and to highlight the scale of ambition possible under alignments of funding, space, and institutional trust. In the decades since, the landscape of public art in London and nationwide has shifted dramatically: corporate sponsorship dominates, large-scale site-specific commissions for early-career artists are increasingly rare, and public artworks are often aesthetically neutralised to appease commercial sensibilities. House can be understood not only as a key work of contemporary British art, but as a marker of transition in the politics of public sculpture itself.

Jean Watt is a curator and writer who recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Curatorial Studies at KASK, Ghent. She runs A Place to Rest, a nomadic project situating artworks temporarily in unusual spaces, and has curated exhibitions at spaces including Flexitron, SET Woolwich, Het Paviljoen, and Kunsthal Gent. Her writing has been published with East of Borneo, Ocula, émergent, and artlead. She previously worked as Curatorial Assistant at Superblue and on the curatorial teams at S.M.A.K. and Publiek Park. She holds a BA in History of Art from UCL.