The former Shenton Park Hospital site is a unique place with a strong history and local identity. From its early days as a hospital and isolation unit for infectious disease, it has remained an important State Government asset. With the relocation of the majority of its services to the State Rehabilitation Centre at Fiona Stanley Hospital in 2014, the site now provides a rare infill opportunity for integrated urban living five kilometres from both the CBD and the Indian Ocean.

As part of preparing the overall Place Activation Strategy for the site, Element Advisory was engaged by DevelopmentWA to develop a Public Art Strategy and Masterplan to align with internal policy and place narratives – bridging the gap from its past life as a medical facility to an activated residential precinct.

This included significant research to identify curatorial themes; analysis of the project masterplan to locate artwork opportunities; and determination of procurement methodologies for all works in the public realm. The Public Art Strategy and Masterplan included staging and budgeting detail on all artwork opportunities, including those to be funded by the developer contribution Public Art Fund to be administered by DevelopmentWA, as well as DevelopmentWA funded opportunities.

This process involved establishing and understanding the project objectives and priorities, working closely with DevelopmentWA’s development managers, marketing team and community development professionals.

Following endorsement of the Strategy and Masterplan, we procured a well-known WA artist to deliver an iconic statement artwork to the entry of Montario Quarter. The work is located within a road reserve, in close proximity to traffic. Understanding the site complexities including liaison with Main Roads, Synergy, WaterCorp and the City of Subiaco’s traffic engineer has been critical in the development of this site-specific artwork.

Alongside the development of the Public Art Strategy and Masterplan, an opportunity was identified for a co-created mural artwork, collaborating with neighbouring Shenton College. The project management of a series of artist led workshops, and the delivery of the 400m long mural ran concurrently to the procurement of an artist for the roundabout artwork.

An integrated Public Art Strategy and Masterplan created a unified vision for public art on the site, and detailed all artwork opportunities, including those to be funded by the Public Art Fund to be administered by DevelopmentWA.

To date, three of the identified artworks are in development or have been completed, including works by local artists Penelope Forlano and Sohan Ariel Hayes, as well as the major entry statement artwork currently in fabrication.

A collaboratively designed and delivered 400m long mural, revitalising the Lemnos Street interface to Montario Quarter was delivered with Year 10 Shenton College students and local artist Chris Nixon.

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Image credit: Mutualities by Penelope Forlano. Photo by Douglas Mark Black.