Lunchtime talks on Public Art at the Bermuda National Gallery have been extremely popular. In the last three weeks about 60 people have attended each of the Wednesday talks, which are jointly sponsored by Works and Engineering.

A good cross section of architects, artists, civil servants and the general public have attended the talks.

The goal of the talks, according to W & E Minister Alex Scott, is to increase awareness of the role of public art with an audience who can then take the message out to the broader community.

Members of the artistic and design communities teamed up in each of the presentations with talks and slides of public art, mostly overseas. Short panel discussions with audience participation have followed each presentation.

People agreed that we need more public art in Bermuda, with a much broader scope than "just Desmond Fountain sculptures,'' as one participant said.

These talks are exploring the "possibilities and practicalities'' of doing just that.

Roger Sherratt says, "I hope our city of Hamilton plan will include Public Art.'' He spoke of the progress that has been made with adding "Arts Centre'' to the City Hall building, and installing the, at the time, controversial Chadwick sculpture on the lawn. He saw this as a "leap forward'' in broadening the variety of public art.

A method used to increase public art in other cities is a "percentage for art'' programme, where developers dedicate a percentage of building costs to art within their projects. Toronto has such a successful programme.

Buildings like the Skydome, with its sculpted fans overhanging balconies at the front of the building, is a good example. Art such as this often becomes a tourist attraction.

Increased tourism, and other economic boosts to the community, were the result of a mural project Roland Russell worked on in the former mining town of Cobalt, Ontario. Mr. Russell showed slides and spoke of creating the historical murals. These, and later commissioned sculptures, have become a reason to stop in this northern, almost ghost town. A theatre and arts festival also developed since the visual art was commissioned.

The art helped to boost the economy with its ascetic appeal and helped to enrich the spirit of the local residents. Public art can also be used in land reclamation projects, as reminders of what was, and to draw attention to environmental destruction.

Artist Dr. Charles Zuill suggested turning Fort Hamilton into a sculpture park. He was excited about "the possibility of sculpture interacting with nature. Think about it -- swords into ploughshares -- a fort into a sculpture park''. He had some creative suggestions of how this could be done like, "laser lights in the moat twisting and turning''.

Generally the artist ideas were more independent than designers like Jim Leslie, a landscape architect with W & E. He has been involved with public art projects in the US which have integrated the process with artists and a design team.

Mr. Leslie's view is that, "... we don't have to create art projects to promote public art -- rather all we have to do is utilise art as an essential element in executing our public projects and planning''. He has worked with artists but many professional designers consider their architectural and landscape designs to be art in themselves.

The diversity of views keeps the talks interesting, and afterwards the presenters will compile all their ideas into a document to be presented to the government. The hope is that the input will contribute to a Bermuda Public Art Master Plan.

The last talk with artist Paul Doughty and architect John Gardner will be at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, at the Bermuda National Gallery.

Fount of inspiration: A Desmond Fountain statue in the area between Clarendon House and the Bank of Bermuda, off Par-La-Ville Road, Hamilton.