Commission Aims
The Royston Road Parks Project was created to stimulate regeneration and community development within the area. The project was conceived by locals to the area as a counter to frequent cutbacks and losses of community, arts and youth works. Through artistic intervention and a partnership with Fablevision, the community was inspired to set up and manage their own company, Royston Road Projects Ltd.
'The Royston Project with other agencies active in the area seek to 'join the dots' along the road, break down old boundaries, cross the invisible thresholds and make new connections.'
Commission Background
The Royston Road Project Board was independently formed in 1998 by the local community, with both residents, project workers and city councilors. A limited company, linked to the Development Trust Scotland, was set-up and partnered with Fablevision (early 1998) to fulfill its original objectives; to provide training and employment opportunities and involve young people in improving the area. Fablevision supported the project helping to identify funding, develop ideas and involve artists and other consultants to work on the project.
The catalyst for the project was the demolition of the Townhead Church and threat to the site's spire in late 1997. Through arts led community development the project sought to develop two parks, located at opposite ends of the 'Royston Corridor'- the Spire Park and Molendinar Park, so as to 'bookend' the area.
Fablevision (Directed by Liz Gardiner) had been working as a creative community organisation to help galvanise what was a community protest into a more formal community organisation which became the Royston Road Project (RRP). While Fablevision had been able to raise funding and had excellent local links they did not have experience in delivering public art projects. Therefore Visual Arts Projects (VAP: co-directors Lucy Byatt and Julia Radcliffe) were appointed in 1999, to give this layer of vision to the ideas that were emerging from the RRP. VAP advised on the appointment of the design team inviting, on behalf of RRP, landscape architect Greg White from Loci Design and artists Toby Paterson and Graham Fagen. By 2000 Lucy Byatt established a new company, 'The Centre: commissioning artists in place' and continued working with the Royston Road Project for a further two years. From the outset, the development of the parks alone was not the sole aim; the idea that underpinned the project was that the parks should be the notional site. The project was planned to take in and involve the entire area; the people, schools, library, youth and community groups; all that makes up a place of this sort, on the edge of a city. There was therefore frequent discussion, debate and brokering of ideas in collaboration with residents and community groups at every stage of the project from conception to completion. The Centre identified community organisations that could work with artists or could unlock the local area for them by acting as contacts. During the period of the development of the parks six artist residencies took place hosted by groups in the area; Radio Tuesday, Scott Miles, Jenny Brownrigg and others. It was hoped that close community involvement would engender a sense of ownership and purpose and there was much debate about the role of the artist and their practice, between engagement and instrumentalisation within this agenda. Consultation was crucial and continued throughout the three year period.
Graham Fagen's 'Where the Heart Is' formed part of his residency at the project. Fagen describes the work as a result of, or reaction to, the frustration he felt about money being spent exclusively on two relatively small localities, within a much larger area which similarly needed regeneration. Fagen looked for a specific strategy that would extend the project outside of the two parks into the wider, surrounding community and bring both money and influence beyond their boundaries.
Initially, Fagen proposed a series of trees, planted within the community. He likened them to 'sculptures', considering their ability to effect behaviors, but also how they would relate to the community beyond the parks. Committee members from the Royston Road Project suggested that the trees could commemorate those who had fought for the community, and later young people from the area who had died. The project became not only commemorative, but something deeply and tragically personal. Launched with a walk from site to site, the project attracted huge local interest. Fagen felt the work as it stood became a kind of memorial park within a project which hoped to '[re-associate] the land with a new memory' ('Botanica' Grizedale Books, Cumbria; 2002 p.80). While the trees became symbols of individuals, Fagen hoped to achieve something similar with an object that would instead be identified with a community voice.
At strategic points at the two sites, Fagen planted a 'new rose for Royston'. The new rose, developed by Cockers Nursery, Aberdeen, was purchased by Fagen for the community and known only by its code 'JC30518/A'. The dark pink, highly scented hybrid T rose was 'manufactured' by the nursery in a process that took over seven years, and was chosen by Fagen and Lucy Byatt (The Centre). With the manufacturing process taking a considerable period of time, only a handful of roses were available for Fagen to decide between; through a process of elimination JC30518/A was chosen for its identifiable and immediate visual impact.
In continuation of the community involvement that was so crucial to the project, and the need to engender ownership of the project by the local community, the rose was named through dialogues with local groups throughout Royston, Germiston, Blackhill and Provanmill. Postcards were distributed throughout schools and through a free local newspaper with assistance from the Community Association. Representatives from the City Council, community and Cockers Nursery acted as judges, selected as the winning name 'Where the Heart Is', given by Nicola McDonald, a pupil from St Roch's Primary School, Royston. The community held a prize giving ceremony to celebrate the naming at the People's Palace, Glasgow.
Although only 200 specimens existed at the start of the project, the rose was later was delivered to those in the community involved with the naming and other aspects of the project, in addition to any member of the community who asked, for the planting season in November 2002, spreading 'Royston's rose' throughout the area. Around 150 bushes were distributed in this way.
In moving the 'art objects' outside of the two parks, Fagen hoped to achieve sustained commitment to the regeneration of the whole area, persuading the City Council to commit to maintenance beyond the parks and engage elsewhere. As a result of the work, the City Council agreed to continue maintenance of the trees in addition to the two parks.
Funding
The project to create the two parks cost a total of £794,200. Funding was secured from the Scottish Arts Council (SAC Award) for £349,300 towards the cost of involving artists in developing two public spaces in the Royston Road area.
The purchase of the rose itself (for the work ‘Where the Heart Is’) was approximately £10,000.
Royston Road Projects Ltd, with Fablevision, raised funding from bodies including The Scottish Arts Council, National Lottery Fund, Strathclyde European Partnership, National Lottery Charities Board, Glasgow City Council, European Social Fund and the Esmee Fairbairn Trust to create, manage and deliver the project:
During May 1998 and December 1999 a project budget of £90,000 was established. Funding partners: City of Architecture and Design 1999, European Regional Deveopment Fund, Scottish National Heritage, Scottish Homes (now Communities Scotland), Glasgow City Council.
In December 1999 a funding package in excess of £1.5 million was established. Funding partners: N.L.C.B (now Communities Fund) (£300,000), Scottish Arts Council (£300,000), European Regional Development Fund (£300,000), Esmee Fairbairn Trust (£50,000), Glasgow City Council (£275,000), The Wise Group (via the European Social Fund) (£300,000).
Legacy
The success of the Royston Road Project is evinced by the lasting projects, effects and legacies of its work. New housing developments in Blackhill and Provanmill are designed with the parks forming a community hub, and the project is developing a £60,000 youth culture project targeted at teenagers. A new youth shelter was developed with support from the local police and was led by consultation with those who had been destructive within the physical environment previously.
Paid training and employment for local people through the contractors Landwise for the two parks was highlighted as positive outcome, further engendering a sense of ownership and legacy within the community.
The project created an Arts and Retention Network with its own development officer (supported by the Scottish Arts Council and the Social Inclusion Partnership). This network, instigated and developed by Fablevision, sought to ensure that the Royston Road Project was not the sole arts project within the much larger and disparate community of North Glasgow. Taking note of the existent network of local arts groups who work across drama, music and visual art, links were established with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
The Royston Road Project's website holds an extensive archive of the creation and development of the two parks, a new internet network for businesses, organisations and schools, in addition to a online performance project by Eddie Ladd 'Cutz Royale', forming an excellent document of the project. Additionally, the website holds information on the artist's residencies undertaken during the creation of the two parks, each with the aim of heightening awareness and engagement with the project, with a particular focus on 'public space'. Works include:
Stephen Healy 'Mongrel' (Artist in Residence to Royston Youth Action from early 2001). Collection of large format photographs of pet dogs from the local community. The works form a permanent collection in The Rainbow Hall, part of the Spire Park site. The commission was launched on the 4th October 2001.
Jenny Brownrigg 'Romantic Vanguard' (Artist in Residence with Molendinar Community Council). Workshop project with Mills and Boon author Jessica Hart.
Paul Carter 'Signal Hut' (Artist in Residence at Royston Youth Action, September 2000 to July 2001). Royston Spire was used as a radio transceiver to transmit and receive radio signals from space.
Scott Myles 'We Belong to You' and Thrush Grove Memorial Study Room (2000-2001)
Bolt FM, a youth led community radio which broadcast from 2003-2004, (Radio Tuesday: Alex Frost, Mark Vernon and Duncan Campbell) which additionally used performative marketing to reach a wider community, such as projecting their logo onto the side of the giant gas tank off the M8.
The project is further documented by publications on both the two parks (Royston Road Parks, published by The Centre on behalf of the Royston Road Project) and by artist's books relating to individual residencies. Graham Fagen's work for Royston can also be found in the monograph 'Botanica' (Published by Grizedale Books, Cumbria; 2002). In particular see the essay 'Royston Road Trees and Where The Heart Is - Like A Mascot' by Lucy Byatt of The Centre (pp.73-84).
Fagen also produced a significant body of work as a result of his participation with Royston Road. A bronze cast of rose JC30518/A or 'Where the Heart Is' was exhibited in the 2004 Tate Britain Exhibition 'Art of the Garden' curated by Martin Postle, Mary Horlock and Ben Tufnell from Tate in collaboration with Nicholas Alfrey and Stephen Daniels from the University of Nottingham. Additionally, specimens of the rose were planted in the Tate's lawns, ironically bringing the rose - made specifically for a deprived area - into an area of wealth. The work is documented and contextualized as part of the Royston Road Project in the publication 'Art of the Garden' (Martin Postle, Stephen Daniels and Nicholas Alfrey (eds.) Tate Publishing, London; 2004).
An independent evaluation in 2001 cites the project as creating a sense of self and community confidence, particularly as a result of the physical regeneration of space. However, the quality of local housing, drug abuse and vandalism remained a concern, where it was noted that 'the expectations raised by the artists led approach were not going to be met by arts projects in isolation'. To date the parks have suffered a degree of vandalism, but are designed to withstand damage, and benefit from an ongoing maintenance program by Glasgow City Council. (see Communities Scotland Archived Site; Scottish Centre for Regeneration).
Royston Road Parks Project was awarded a Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum Award in 2002 in the 'Recreate' category for best practice in using the creative arts in regeneration and inclusion and a British Urban Regeneration Award in January 2008, one of four top awards out of 110 projects submitted. The project was also the subject of a BBC television program 'Restoration Nation' in 2004 and has had both national and international interest in the approach taken to community regeneration.