Ref. 26230-69Arguments may occur over specific pieces, but it can't be denied that Swindon is an arty kind of place. JAMES WATSON asks an art critic for his view on some of the town's sculptures.

ART has always taken pride of place in Swindon. Take a trip to the shops, a wander round town or even a visit to the hospital and you are likely to come across artworks without even thinking about it.

Now Swindon Council has commissioned plans for a £94,000, 12 metre high sculpture of an orchid in North Swindon that could become Swindon's Angel of the West, as famous as the Angel of the North in Tyneside.

Thanks to the council's Percentage for Art scheme, which means developers have to give the council money for artwork whenever a new development is built, new works such as Applause at the Arts Centre in Devizes Road have been springing up.

And they have not cost the taxpayers a penny.

The cash for the North Swindon sculpture, at the junction of Cricklade Road and Thamesdown Drive, comes from the consortium of developers building 6,000 homes in the northern expansion.

Art expert Dr Daniel Hinchcliffe of the University of Bath's Institute of Contemporary and Interdisciplinary Arts, which has an office in Swindon, divides his time between the two campuses.

He visited the town to take a look at some of our most famous and not so famous public works of art.

His opinions were mixed, from the "light hearted fun" of the railings outside Swindon Dance's Regent Circus studios to the Millennium Clock, which left Dr Hinchcliffe speechless.

He said: "It is great to see so much art in public places.

"In November last year there was a great project called celebrating Swindon. It was sponsored by Asda and children worked with artists to produce a billboard and cartoon painted double decker bus.

"Swindon Artscape is very active in making things happen in the town.

"With public art it is rarely a case of saying something is good or bad, you have to know the context and it can be so subjective. Often people grow very fond of works that are unpopular at first, and they earn humorous nicknames."

Swindon Artscape, the arts department of Swindon Council, is responsible for commissioning and presenting professional arts including exhibitions, workshops, festivals, concerts and public artworks.

www.swindonartscape.co.uk