Public Art: People, Projects, Access

In the recent furore surrounding the British Airways new image and aircraft tail paintings, one important point seems to have been overlooked: that a major corporation has been enlightened enough to commission a range of artists and thereby take the risk of what they will produce. Art patronage used to be private, even aristocratic; in the twentieth century there have been notable examples both of public and of corporate patronage. There are always risks (and I have to admit that at one stage I shied away from becoming involved in a commission on behalf of my University when I perceived...