A team of volunteers has helped to create a free interactive digital map featuring over 180 public artworks across Sheffield. The Sheffield Public Artworks Map from Wessex Archaeology and the Sheffield Visual Arts Group brings together famous as well as hidden 3D artworks found in and around the city. Now, the team behind the Sheffield Public Artworks Map wants the eagle-eyed people of Sheffield to come forward with suggestions of lesser-known artworks that haven’t yet been added to the map.
A chair sitting in the middle of the River Rivelin, a giant spider’s web on the Gripple building, a series of ever-changing sculptures rising from the banks of the River Don and the portly Grandad Fox standing proudly in the middle of Fox Valley Way Shopping Park roundabout in Stocksbridge, are just a few of the artworks recorded so far by a group of 19 volunteers have been learning how to record the artworks through a series of skills-share workshops, walks and tours.
River Don sculptures by Daniel Bustamante and Spider’s Web by Johnny White
Now, local people are being asked to spot artworks in their communities as they travel around the city to work, school or at a weekend. If they find an artwork, they can check whether it is listed on the public artwork map. If it isn’t listed, they are invited to submit an online form and photograph so a team of volunteers can head out to fully record the artwork and add them to the map. All new submissions must be made by 13 February 2023.
Loveday Herridge, Chair of Sheffield Visual Arts Group, said:
"The core aims of Sheffield Visual Arts Group are to champion and celebrate Sheffield’s amazing art, and Wessex Archaeology’s engaging interactive Public Artworks map is an important tool to do just that. In this new stage of our collaborative project, we are looking forward to Sheffield people working with us to discover new additions for the art map from all over Sheffield, so that together we can record, learn about and sustain our public artworks."
Grandad Fox by Pete McKee and Rivelin Valley steel chair by Jason Thomson
Jenny Owen, Volunteer for Sheffield Public Artwork Recording Project, said:
“I’ve really enjoyed contributing to the public art project. It’s been good to be part of a team effort - being able to click on the map to find new entries, often works and artists that I didn’t know about. Having lived in Sheffield since 1975, I thought I knew the city well, but going out to find artwork for the project has given me a great excuse to explore places I didn’t know well at all. We did a lot over the summer, but there’s still a lot more to discover and to record so I’m looking forward to the next phase of the project.”
See our children's activity sheet below to learn how you can start finding and recording artwork in your local area! Share your findings with us on social media by tagging @wessexarch
