Can we encourage a creative economy?

Dear Fellow Citizen

We want to set up a School of Mosaic. This School of Mosaic will have short, medium and long-term aims. If it is based temporarily or permanently in the South Bank Centre, at the geographic heart of London, then this will give such a School an impressive profile with an international reputation.

The short-term aim will be to establish in the UK a school which operates at the highest standards and supports the recovery of one of our earliest and most brilliant art forms. With Southbank Mosaics’ unique ethos of an “open” studio, this will make top quality artisan education accessible to all.

In the medium term we will design a degree course that links ancient mosaics to modern practices, from restoration and conservation to construction and transformation of the public realm. Public space is where we meet and we can create a sense of place, linking neighbourhoods to their roots, revealing buried history, as well as tackling the blandness of some urban scenes.

In the longer term we are interested in two keys concepts. 1) Designing out road-works from streets (see: Forever Open Road). A programme to do this will create many jobs as well as tackling a major blight of our urban environment, opening up the possibility of turning the street into a gallery. 2) Designing out unemployment – Taking the first steps to systemising meaningful jobs for all – so that anyone and everyone can have a paid job, making their neighbourhood more attractive.

I hope that 2013 will see us creating stepping stones towards realising these potentials.

Yours Sincerely

Mosaic Artisan

You can buy the book of this name from Kindle, or as a pdf off our website for £4.99 @ http://www.southbankmosaics.com