Caught red (and yellow and pink and blue) handed

Peter Osborne 'Rainbow Gate' Rougemont Gardens, Exeter. Photo: Matt Burrows

Exeter City Council has been caught in the act installing yet more dubious public 'art'. Costing between £16,000 and £25,000, this decorative metal gate appeared unannounced in a high-profile location in the city last week. It connects the city's prestigious 'cultural quarter' (including a recently refurbished library and award-winning museum) to an important city centre park. 

It was commissioned and installed without public consultation, with zero input from experts in the city's cultural organisations, and without any kind of competitive bid. At a time when local authority budgets are under extreme pressure, the community's tolerance for this kind of nonsense is wearing thin. On Facebook, Matt Burrows, Curator and Gallery Manager at nearby Exeter Phoenix calls it "a horrible, retrogressive piece of bad design...the wrong thing, in the wrong place". He goes on to say: "The question is, at a time of dwindling resources for the arts, how this decision was taken and why [...] There seems to have been a breakdown in consultation, communication and aesthetic decision-making."

Councillors claim to be embarassed and upset by the ensuing media fuss. Yet they've been intent on blaming those who noticed rather than those who were involved in the dubious and far from transparent decisions that led to the gate's appearance. They claim it was commissioned two years ago, but that's hardly an excuse. They tried a similar trick back in 2008 with the hugely unpopular 'Voices of Heavitree' which was made by a team including the same artist-blacksmith Peter Osborne. At that time, Paul Osborne (any relation?), Environmental Improvements Officer at Exeter City Council, was left in no doubt about how the public felt.

Spending on the arts is quite rightly a sensitive issue in the current economic climate. Which is even more reason to use what we have wisely and well. As Matt Burrows says: "This city has a wealth of fantastic arts organisations, staffed by experienced arts professionals who are trained (and funded) specifically to deliver excellent, high quality creative projects." They're also used to squeezing exceptional value from every penny.  £16,000 - £25,000 would have gone a long way in their hands. Like many, I'm gutted and angry at the waste. And deeply concerned about the negative public reaction to arts spending that might result.