Salisbury Business Improvement District

Open call for temporary public art commission for Salisbury city centre

3rd December 2019

Salisbury BID is looking to commission an artist to create a temporary work of public art that will be positioned in the High Street from April until September 2020.

Salisbury is celebrating the 800th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of Salisbury Cathedral and the birth of Salisbury as the city where it stands today.

In the early 1200s, the medieval bishop at Old Sarum actioned a plan that would change the city of Salisbury forever. Driven by the need to access fresh water, and desperate to escape from bad weather and regular harassment from soldiers, Bishop Poore moved the Cathedral and its community from the barren, wind-blown hillside at Old Sarum to where the city stands today. A move that required the greatest physical, technological and intellectual skills to achieve.

800 years later the city is celebrating that audacious move with Salisbury 2020: City on the Move, a year of events, activities and celebrations.

Salisbury 2020: City on the Move has three main themes to the anniversary year:

• Movement of thought, faith and ideas: exploring developments over the last 800 years
• Physical Movement: echoing the strength and endeavour required to build a new cathedral
• Movement of Technology and science: celebrating the ingenuity of forebears, offering ways to discover the latest ideas

Salisbury BID is looking to commission an artist to create a temporary work of public art that will be positioned in the High Street from April until September 2020.

The commission aims to draw-in visitors, help them interpret the anniversary and to understand the significant act of faith, physical strength and technological advancement, but to also reflect the positive future for Salisbury as a city moving forward from a terrible international incident in 2018 that effected many residents and local businesses.

The artwork can take any form but artists should draw their inspiration from the the themes of Salisbury 2020 (and be aware that the piece needs to have maximum impact throughout the 6 months of installation).

Click here to read the full artist brief.