In 2006 Neville Gabie was appointed by art consultants InSite Arts, on behalf of the Bristol Alliance (www.bristolcitycentre.com), as ‘artist in residence’. Neville’s commission has been programmed to run during the three year construction period of the Cabot Circus development - a thirty-seven acre development which includes retail, leisure and residential accommodation located in the heart of Bristol city centre. www.cabotcircus.com
Neville began working on site soon after building work started in June 2006 and will continue working past official launch in 2008, until spring 2009. During the last eighteen months Neville has built invaluable working relationships across the hugely varied Cabot Circus workforce, which has informed both temporary projects and permanent installations. A series of publications will be produced to detail Neville’s art programme.
In parallel to developing his own practice as an artist on site, Neville Gabie was keen to initiate a programme of smaller temporary artist projects at key moments throughout the redevelopment. With the support of the Bristol Alliance and with the close collaboration of Insite Arts, the BS1 programme has been initiated. Funded jointly by Bristol Alliance and Arts Council England, six artists in addition to Neville Gabie will develop a programme of temporary works over the coming year.
‘Rarely does a development company take such a huge risk in commissioning artists with no defined outcome and we are very excited by this. We are interested in the process’ – Bristol Alliance