Hi, Moira. How are you doing?

 

I'm doing really well. We've just come off the back of a performance program that we delivered this weekend together with London Gallery Weekend. So, I'm kind of on a high really from that, because we had a great turnout…

 

But also quite tired, I imagine?

 

Yes, pretty tired. I am actually having two days off later this week, so that'll be lovely, and a welcome rest. But yeah!

 

Excellent. Well, I wonder if we could first start by just talking a little bit for people who don't know what you guys do at UP Projects? What's your line?

 

So, UP Projects is a public art commissioning organization. We work with some of the most talented artists working today to bring their work outside of the walls of the gallery, and into public spaces. And we have a very special focus on social practice. So: enabling artists to work directly with communities to create projects in the public realm.

 

And you've just been personally elevated, I think, to executive director since April. Could you explain what your role entails, exactly? 

 

Yes. So UP Projects was founded 20 years ago by Emma Underhill and has been working highly successfully on a broad range of projects since then. And we've just recently moved to a shared leadership model. I've been promoted to executive director.  I've worked with Emma for well over six, seven years, as a freelancer, later as deputy director and now as executive director. And we've got a really, really strong working relationship. We're very complementary as well, I guess, in the way that we work. My role involves working on a whole host of partnership projects; UP Projects self-initiates work, but we also work with a whole range of clients, from the public, private, cultural sectors, to deliver public art strategies, commissions in the public realm and engagement projects. So my role really involves forging those partnerships and delivering those projects, together with our brilliant team.

And one of the projects that you're involved with heavily is in Edgware, isn't it? Could you tell us a little bit about that and when it starts and what it entails?

 

Yeah, so we're currently working for Barnet Council. Edgware is at the end of the Northern line, and there is a very diverse high street there with a lot of kinds of local businesses. We are curating a centenary programme to celebrate 100 years of Station Road, which is the name of the high street there. And our role is to bring artists to the high street and activate the high street in a variety of different ways across this year-long programme. We've got a whole series of events that are happening across the year, the first of which are happening in a couple of weeks' time during London Festival of Architecture. And then we're also commissioning an artwork on the high street with an artist called Holly Graham, which will be a temporary artwork, but will be up for a minimum of two to three years on the high street.

 

And this is a mural, right?

 

It's going to be a mural, but we're hoping also that it might lead to further improvements around the site where it's located. Holly's brief is very much around engaging young people specifically in the area through the development of the work. She will be running a series of workshops with young people based in Edgware and exploring their aspirations for Edgware in the future and how the centenary moment can be a moment for reflection about what we can do today that can inform Edgware's future. She's developing her ideas right now. And then there will be a series of activities that will take place as part of that commission that will kick off in July, hopefully.

 

You intimated there that it's intended to promote development. So art - public art – being used as a sort of way to lure developers in and encourage regeneration? Would that be fair?

 

Oh, sorry, no, not in this context. The artwork actually has no link to any of the development in the area. It's been proactively commissioned by the local authority. And I think their impetus is less around promoting development in Edgware, and much more about the role that arts and culture can play in bringing new audiences and in connecting existing communities with their neighbourhood.

 

Right. Got you. But in terms of the atmosphere that you operate in, generally, in terms of the public art world, currently, and this kind of area, how is it? And is it getting tougher financially, for example?

 

I think that's an interesting question. The way that UP Projects operates, as I've mentioned previously, is that we've got a very strong focus on social practice. So again, engaging communities through the work that we do. And actually, it's my feeling that that way of working is actually gathering more appreciation probably from the wider regeneration sector and the private sector. Developers I think now start to understand the benefit of this kind of work. Therefore, we've actually seen a shift in appreciation, probably, of our work in that way. We often work with developers to create public art strategies that contribute positively to placemaking, but also help them connect in a way with communities that they may need to form dialogues with, in new and interesting and creative ways that I think has definitely helped, in a way, and sometimes improve those developments in a way that the client may not have initially thought would happen.

 

And so is that as part of that ESG movement, generally, do you think? Across the board?

 

Absolutely. Yeah. And a lot of our work falls within Section 106 agreements as well. But I think that that realisation, that ESG and social value play a very important role, has definitely helped in the conversations that we have with clients and partners.

 

So how does a project like Edgware come into your purview? Do you bid for projects like this? How do they happen? Or do you just have contacts with local authorities that come to you?

 

It really depends. Sometimes it's word of mouth, and people have heard of our work and are really excited and interested to work with us. Sometimes we tender for projects – that's normally the case with local authority projects. And otherwise, yeah, we're invited to tender or word of mouth or proactive pitching and getting out there and people knowing our work really tends to be the approach.

 

Yeah. And you obviously love your work. What's the best thing about it?

 

For me, I think the best thing is when you are working with people, and I love the way that my job is constantly involved with working with people in communities, artists, partners, to make projects happen, and I think that's what really drives me.

 

Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for chatting this through and good luck with Edgware. I hope it all goes swimmingly!

 

Thank you, David.