Broadbent Studios

Stephen Broadbent was our guest speaker today. Stephen has a longstanding practice of delivering sculptural responses to public spaces at a local, regional and national level. He is also instrumental to Broadbent Studios who collectively work on the proposal, design, fabrication, installation and delivery of public facing commissions for and with other artists.

The small studio was built around the artist Stephen Broadbent. Over the last thirty years, he has successfully completed many public art projects, private commissions and exhibitions.

Stephen continues to demonstrate a role where artists can be radically engaged in the community, finding solutions, selecting and also interpreting themes that enlarge and enlighten our experience of the world.

Stephen explained to us that their process was:

LOOK around - find the threads already there

SEE potential - get excited about stories to be told

REFLECT on meanings - draw out what is relevant

DEVELOP themes - out of which designs emerge

CO-OPERATE - with planners, architects, engineers and local people

"Art as part of the built environment works with the rest of its surroundings to create a sense of place. This type of art can’t be simply an added decoration, like rhinestones sewn on a jacket. If it is to help develop the character of a place, it must grow out of the existing fabric." - Broadbent