Marsh Award


Threads, Bethnal Green, London.
Tim & Hattie Coppard, 1996

 


Sculpture, Cardiff Bay
photo: Jeremy Haslam

 

Seats of Ceramic tiles.
Cardiff Bay.
photos: Jeremy Haslam

 

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The Marsh Award for Public Sculpture

This annual award is sponsored by the Marsh Christian Trust and administered by the PMSA. The award is presented for excellence in contemporary work, and also for distinction in restoration of historical works. This encapsulates the PMSA’s inclusive approach to public sculpture: as features in the urban and rural landscape, the association considers historical and contemporary sculptures to be equal in value.

Nominations for the year 2009 are invited from members of the PMSA or of affiliated societies (see list below). Members of the public are welcome to join in: they require sponsorship from an eligible supporter, and the PMSA is always pleased to welcome new members.

How to nominate

You need: (1) to be a PMSA member, or a member of an affiliated society, or to be seconded by a member of any of these groups; (2) to fill in this year's nomination form. To receive a nomination form for 2009, with an accompanying information sheet giving details of eligibility, please email pmsa@pmsa.org.uk.

Works to be nominated come in two categories:

  • a piece that has been made and unveiled within eighteen months of the cut-off point, 30 April 2009
  • a restoration of any eligible work that has been carried out and completed within the above time period

Full information on the eligibility requirements of a work to be nominated is included on the nomination form and on the sheet of affiliated societies (‘Eligibility details’).

The Award Panel members for 2009 will be: David Charlesworth (Marsh Christian Trust), Ian Leith (Deputy Chairman, PMSA; Chairman, Marsh Awards), Zuleika Dobson (Administrator, Marsh Awards), Jo Darke (CEO, PMSA) and a co-opted member for 2009, the arts consultant Sue Ridge.

Affiliated Societies

Ancient Monuments Society

Art & Architecture

British Sundial Society

Fountain Society

Historic Gardens Association

Landscape and Arts Network

Royal British Society of Sculptors

Society of Portrait Sculptors

Twentieth Century Society

UK National Inventory of War Memorials

War Memorials Trust (formerly Friends of War Memorials)


THE NATIONAL RECORDING PROJECT

WORK IN PROGRESS

The PMSA NRP is currently working on a £30,000 three-year grant from English Heritage's National Capacity Building Programme (go to National Recording Project)

Funds are being sought for an urgent update of the NRP database and website.

This national survey of public sculptures and monuments has been in existence almost as long as the PMSA. Its long-term aims are

  • to provide, update and maintain a computerised online database of core data for all the public sculptures and monuments in Britain (and eventually, the British Isles).
  • In collaboration with Liverpool University Press, to research in-depth, and publish, a series of volumes based on the national survey (see below).

Other current NRP activities

NRP volumes - The tenth volume in this unique series, Public Sculpture of South London Inner Boroughs was published in 2007. The volume’s veteran author, Terry Cavanagh, is a native of South London and reveals many hidden treasures to be discovered in the London boroughs of Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham.

This visionary and unique series is published by Liverpool University Press: other volumes feature the Cities of Liverpool (1997), Birmingham (1998), Glasgow (2002) and London (2004); the Counties of Leicestershire and Rutland (2000) and of Warwickshire (2004); and the region of the North-East of England (2000).

Data gathering and recording. With the aid of a National Grant Fund grant, the National Archive Centre is pursuing the completion of the geographical map. Regional Archive Centres are active at the Universities of Brighton, East Anglia (UEA), Hull, Leeds, Reading and Derby.

The RAC at the University of East Anglia (UEA) has completed its survey of Norfolk and Suffolk.

Upgrading of the existing NRP database and web pages. The database, devised in 1997, urgently needs enhancement so that its invaluable data will be available to data input personnel and users alike. The PMSA is seeking funding to make an upgrade as soon as possible.

Searching for further funding. For long-term maintenance and updating of the upgraded database and website.

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SAVE our SCULPTURE

Launched on 4 March 2003, the SoS project of the PMSA monitors the care and maintenance of public sculptures and encourages members of the public with a concern for the environment to report on the condition of their neighbourhood sculptures. In 2006 the SoS Chair, Ian Leith, published and broadcast on the worrying, and fast-escalating, problem of sculpture theft of public sculptures nationwide.

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