PROJECTSPACE - Tatton Park Biennial

Context
Background
Tatton park Biennial 2008
Cheshire's Year of the Gardens 2008
Funding
Challenges
Artworks

 

Context
Tatton Park has been the site for much commissioning activity over recent years, with the successful onetree (1998-2001) and oneplace (2005-2008) projects (hyperlinks). Tatton Park has been successful in attracting established artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, who developed a number of temporary commissions inspired by the natural forms and materials within the parkland.

To develop a contemporary arts biennial at Tatton Park has been the ambition and a long-term vision for General Manager, Brendan Flanagan. Fundamental to this vision has been a belief that all work commissioned at Tatton Park should be site specific and should reflect the nature of the park itself.

This belief can be seen in all the commissions as part of onetree and oneplace; it is prominent in the vision for Tatton Park Biennial 2008, and will be so for future Biennials.

This case study aims to look at the development of the biennial since it's conception and to view some of the challenges it faced. The challenges were many, from the need to ensure the artistic vision was not compromised by the requirements of the expected economic outputs; to meeting planning requirements in order to install all of the commissions.

The spacesforum will debate the challenges faced in establishing Tatton Park Biennial and discussion about the commissions.
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Background
Original discussions for a contemporary arts biennial at Tatton Park began in 2005 and focussed on a sculpture biennial. With many successful models to look at, such at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Cass Sculpture Foundation at Goodwood and medium–scale venues such as the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, it was felt to be an appropriate direction for Tatton Park. In addition, it was evidenced that these venues were successful cultural tourism attractions and had expanded their ventures in recent years.

Tatton Park researched different approaches for the development of the biennial: there were initial discussions with the Royal Academy (RA) in London. A collaborative venture with the RA would have been advantageous, as established artists from the RA would have been invited to exhibit, alongside an open invitation for emerging artists.

However, this option was not pursued but the outline vision was retained – that being: an arts biennial, whereby established artists were invited to exhibit alongside emerging artists.

With a vision in place, consultants were contracted to provide initial research, planning and development for the biennial. An important element of the research was to identify the ‘unique selling point' (USP) of a biennial at Tatton Park, as it was vital for any new venture to be viable and sustainable. In order to attain arts funding and credibility a project needs to demonstrate innovative arts practise alongside sustainability.

Tatton Park itself is seen as the USP for the development of the biennial, the crux of this can be seen in the Tatton Park Biennial vision statement, 2007:

Tatton Park itself will provide the continuity between the biennial exhibitions, each of which will adopt a different curatorial theme And be clearly different from generic ‘art in gardens' exhibitions. The genesis for each theme will be found in Tatton Park's own Spaces and history…..For 2008 the theme will be botanic collections And collectors…

For the theme to focus on the fabric of what makes Tatton Park's gardens significant and of how they came into being allows the freedom for a variety of artistic investigations to take place. In addition, the theme of botanical collections and collectors aligns itself to Cheshire's Year of Gardens 08.


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Tatton Park Biennial 2008
It had been planned from the outset that the inaugural Tatton Park Biennial would take place during 2008 – a crucial year, which sees Liverpool as Capital of Culture and when Cheshire's launches it's Year of the Garden. A link to both of these initiatives would bring cultural, economic and tourism benefits.

The commissioning group, Parabola, were appointed as curators for Tatton Park Biennial via an open invitation for proposals from curators and project managers.

Parabola's proposal developed the artistic vision and direction of the biennial towards that of a contemporary art biennial, commissioning new site-specific works.

Parabola made the case, very effectively, for Tatton Park biennial to commission five new landmark works by established artists alongside a scheme whereby emerging artists could develop experimental works:

In order to develop the reputation of the Biennial, we believe it Is of prime importance to be innovative in the commissioning Process; integrating new work from emerging and more established Artists high on the agenda in order to invigorate art, media and Press interest. This… could also benefit more casual visitors to the grounds, whose interest in the site could be mirrored by the new works produced.
A vision for the 2008 Biennial, Parabola

With the new direction in place Tatton Park and Parabola were able to follow their vision and appointed six mid-career artists to create new, sited works within the gardens at Tatton Park and a further 12 emerging artists were commissioned to create work in relation to the site.


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Cheshire's Year of Gardens 2008
Tatton Park Biennial is a feature event within Cheshire's Year of Gardens 2008 (CYOG 08). CYOG 08 is a major initiative to will celebrate the richness and diversity of Cheshire's horticultural heritage and green spaces, providing benefits to a wide range of tourism- related businesses, the wider visitor economy, the environment and local communities

Through Tatton Park Biennial's relationship with CYOG it was identified that the biennial demonstrates a substantial contribution to the delivery of regional and sub-regional strategies, including the Regional Economic Strategy by enhancing and publicising the tourism product and building a positive image of the sub region.

Funding
Tatton Park Biennial was successful in obtaining funding from bodies including: The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and Arts Council England, Northwest (ACE, NW). Alongside the need to contribute to regional & sub-regional strategies and the economic and tourism outputs as part of CYOG 08, Tatton Park Biennial also needs to meet the funding requirements of NWDA and ACE, NW.


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Challenges
Parabola faced a number of challenges in realising the vision for Tatton Park Biennial.

One of these was to maintain a balance between their vision for the Biennial, establishing high quality commissions and the need for artists to create innovative and investigative commissions, against the need to meet economic and tourism targets, such as increasing visitor numbers during the five months of the biennial.

Further challenges were seen in the practicality of delivering the project, for instance, there were delays and complications in obtaining planning permission for A Tower in the Minds of Others, by Nicky Coutts. This delay meant that the artwork was not installed at the launch of Tatton Park Biennial on 3 May.

Please visit the spacesforum to read more about, or participate in, the discussions about Tatton Park Biennial.


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Artworks
Please visit Tatton Park Biennial to read more about each artist and their commission for the Biennial.

The artists commissioned for Tatton Park Biennial are:

6 Sited Commissions
Gayle Chong Kwan, David Cotterrell, Nicky Coutts, Heather & Ivan Morison, Jacques Nimki and Paulette Phillips

12 Ongoing Commissions
 David Blandy, Lisa Cheung, Faye Claridge, Jo Coupe, Tessa Farmer, Kongkee, The Little Artists, Simon Pope, Abigail Reynolds, Manuela Ribadeneira, Shane Waltener and Simon Woolham


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