The gateway sculpture project grew out of presentations and discussions with the clients who were aiming to increase visibility of their location, and artist Joseph Hillier's proposal was selected following an invited artists design competition.

This project was one of many public art projects which were brokered by Commissions North - the inhouse public arts commissioning agency which I established and ran at Arts Council North East from 2000 to 2010. Commissions North advocated for opportunities for artists within new build and public realm projects across the public and private sectors and used ERDF funding to fund artists design time to make proposals which inturn levered in millions of pounds of funding towards arts commissioning.

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