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Public Art Advisory Service

 

Our Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Public Art Advisory Service (PAAS) provides a high-quality service to support developers and partners with their public art process, ensuring that the information submitted complies with relevant planning policies. Our team of experienced officers can provide a one-stop public art service covering the following:

  • Pre-application discussion: identify the location and type of public art to form part of the public art at a strategic level as part of the planning application submission to ensure policy compliance
  • Public Art Discharge of Condition (DOC) support: we can provide a detailed programme setting out the entire DOC process, covering:
    • Advice on timetable
    • Support Artist selection process
    • Help facilitate community engagement to help inform public art
    • PR
    • Provide support and guidance on Public Art Delivery Plan (PADP)
    • Support Public art launch
    • Advice on GDPR, safeguarding, and photo consent

The PAAS incorporates the multi award winning Greater Cambridge Youth Engagement Service (YES) as part of the community engagement process. Both the PAAs and the YES are endorsed by councillors from Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council and are well received by our business partners. 

The PAAS is committed to creating sustainable communities and high-quality public art. Public Art refers to works of art in any media, which contributes to the identity, understanding, appreciation, and enhancement of public places. 

Planning policy

Find out about the planning policy requirements for PAAS:

Benefits of Public Art

  • actively contribute to integrating community groups and neighbourhoods, promoting community cohesion through socially engaged arts activity
  • create unique images that can be used to promote places, generating pride of place and a sense of local identity and distinctiveness
  • enhance the fundamental principles of urban design, to better improve the quality of the built environment and create distinction and character
  • corporate social responsibility 
  • build consensus 
  • support our partners’ commitment to Environmental, Social and Governance
  • delivers social value by working collaboratively with partners and our local community (including the hard to reach groups) via the YES team. 
Public art 1.jpg

What we offer 

  • advisory service: to provide early advice on PADP, Public Art and Community Engagement approach 
  • enabling service: to enable, oversee and support Public Art and community engagement activities run by others
  • direct delivery: to lead Public Art and community engagement as a consultancy.

Fees

The PAAS offers 3 levels of Services. We are happy to discuss the fees following an initial scoping meeting. The fees are to cover officer time and engagement materials on a cost-recovery basis. 

The Public Art Process

Project initiation

4 weeks

Public art budget and initial ideas

4 weeks

Artist commission

4 weeks

Initial design concepts

4 weeks

Community engagement workshops

8 weeks

Concept refinement

8 weeks

PADP submission

8 weeks

Public art production

12 weeks

Insatllation

8 weeks

Launch

Testimonial

Stephen (Director of the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning)

I wanted to write to let you know what a fantastic job the PAAS & YES team has done in supporting us with the delivery of our public art at The Optic building.

Bonnie's team enabled the whole process to run smoothly by leading all the coordination with Fulbourn school and by organising and running the sessions with the school children - linking in with me, SDC (the contractor), Nathaniel (our artist) and Rosie Glenn (British Lands Art Curator) to make sure we are all aligned and able to give the children the best experience possible.

The work the PAAS & YES teams do not only engages our young people and shows them they are valued in their community, but also gives them insight into the various roles within the development industry and enables them to experience a construction site firsthand.
We are very much looking forward to working with Bonnie and the team in the future.

Kind regards.

Lynn Summerfield - Project Director - British Land - 12.02.2025

 

The team

Public art 2.jpg

Accolades

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Page last reviewed: 27 March 2026
Next review due: 30 April 2026