Capital&Centric has launched a paid commission for two large-scale murals at its Fitzwilliam scheme in Sheffield. As Place Yorkshire reported, the developer is calling for artists.
The word doing the work is paid
Developers commission public art constantly. A lot of it is procured through an agency, delivered by whoever is cheapest, and looks like it.
An open paid commission is different, and the distinction matters to anyone who has been asked to work for exposure. Artists get asked to decorate developments for free or near enough on the argument that the visibility is worth something. Putting a budget behind it is the difference between commissioning art and getting decoration.
Capital&Centric keeps showing its working
We covered this developer in August when Weir Mill completed in Stockport with 253 homes and seven of eight commercial units let to independents. Joint managing director Tom Wilmott was unusually blunt about the method, saying the firm treats ground floor commercial as a bit of a loss leader, taking conservative rents and paying generous fit-out contributions.
The same instinct is visible here. Spend money on the things that make a place worth being in, and accept a slightly lower return on the line items that produce it.
It’s also why the firm is now working on a 2,000-home scheme in Middlesbrough town centre. Councils notice which developers leave a street alive.
Sheffield’s centre
Sheffield has had a decent run lately. NewRiver bought The Moor outright for £38.3m, the £1.3bn Forgemasters rebuild is taking delivery of cranes, Meadowhall signed 56,000 sq ft of food and leisure, and 94,000 sq ft of surplus offices became an ambulance hub.
Murals are a small item next to any of that. They’re also the sort of thing people actually notice on the walk to work, which is worth more than its budget line suggests.
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