Eight new contemporary artworks for Hereford City Centre have been jointly commissioned by Hereford College of Arts and Meadow Arts to celebrate 170 years of creative education in the city.

The new sculpture trail in Hereford City Centre draws inspiration from past English laws of the 17th and 18th centuries that required shops to display visual trade representations crafted by local artisans. The project reimagines this tradition for the 21st century, reusing disused signage brackets across Hereford City Centre.

Hereford is now home to hundreds of students studying specialist degree and college-level courses in art, design, media and performance at Hereford College of Arts. The commission provides the opportunity for emerging artists from the college to publicly show their work alongside new works from established artists working nationally and internationally.

The project aims to:

• Improve the public realm – make Hereford a better place to live, work and visit.
• Celebrate Hereford’s culture, history and heritage through a celebration of 170 years of creative education in the city.
• Showcase Herefordshire’s incredible artistic talent by connecting Hereford College of Arts with the city centre and improving the visibility of the valuable contribution of the arts to the cultural economy of the region.

Commissioned artists include Laura White, Lothar Götz, Matthew Cornford, Richard Makin, Nicholas Stevenson, Mark Houghton, and Daniel Moss. Additionally, artist Celia Johnson will co-produce a work with GCSE art students from Wigmore High School.

Residents and visitors will be able to discover these new works across the city centre from spring 2024.

Enhancing the historic core of Hereford
The sculpture trail is one part of the Art + People + Place programme, commissioned in partnership with Studio Response, it is part of the £6 million Hereford City Centre Improvements (HCCI) project. The overall project aims to refurbish the historic core of Hereford through investment in the streetscape, landscaping and public realm, and is funded jointly by the council and Marches LEP.

The public art project has been years in the making, bringing together local people, students, businesses and stakeholders from across the city to add creativity and vibrancy to our streets. Herefordshire Council held a public consultation session in June 2023 which provided themes, ideas and locations that have fed into the final artworks.

The Hereford Public Art Trail will launch in April 2024.