How an Advisory Group Works

How often does an advisory group meet? There are various answers depending on the size of the project and whether the artistic intervention is integrated into a major urban transformation or perhaps only concerns the glass sections of an entrance door.

The process almost always begins with a start-up meeting in which the art project manager/curator and the project leader meet to discuss the requirements of the project and decide how to compose the advisory group. If the art is introduced in a later stage of a process when architects or landscape architects perhaps already have produced a completed design, they may attend the start-up meeting in order to discuss the limitations and the existing possibilities for the artistic work.

The Initial Phase

The initial phase of a project, its first six months, when the art programme is developed, may require a meeting every month or even more frequently as this period usually includes selecting the artist for the project.

 

The Sketching Process

Before and during the artist’s sketching process, the advisory group holds a meeting in which the artist is presented with all the required background information for the project. Later, the group meets for one or several in-the-middle-of-the-sketch-process presentations together with the art project manager and the artist, depending on whether the concept development requires one or more stages, and whether it is based on sketch work or preliminary studies.

The experts of the advisory group, in particular the architects and the management and maintenance specialists, are often engaged as sounding boards for the artist and the art project manager. This is the case both during the evaluation of the proposal for the artistic intervention and after the production of the artwork has commenced.

 

Sketch Approval

The advisory group’s final meeting often coincides with the meeting that approves the artist’s sketch, or with the final inspection or the inauguration of the artwork.