Skip to main content
Southampton Solent University logo
Southampton Solent University logo

BENCH

Visual expression on everyday structures

Southampton Solent University and GO! Southampton have partnered together with support from Balfour Beatty and Southampton City Council to create BENCH, an exciting new public art commission for Southampton 2020. 16 benches from the pedestrianised high street of Southampton have been transformed into works of art by local artists as part of a city-wide project that aims to activate the public realm.

BENCH links to GO! Southampton’s city recovery plan, together with Solent Showcase Gallery’s ‘What is Our Place?’ project that explores how creativity can rethink place and access across the city.  Art in public places can provide new ways to experience the city and BENCH offered an unusual canvas for artists to explore, infusing an everyday, seemingly unimportant object with new significance. 

Some of the benches from the project painted

Visual expression on everyday structures

Southampton Solent University and GO! Southampton have partnered together with support from Balfour Beatty and Southampton City Council to create BENCH, an exciting new public art commission for Southampton 2020. 16 benches from the pedestrianised high street of Southampton have been transformed into works of art by local artists as part of a city-wide project that aims to activate the public realm.

BENCH links to GO! Southampton’s city recovery plan, together with Solent Showcase Gallery’s ‘What is Our Place?’ project that explores how creativity can rethink place and access across the city.  Art in public places can provide new ways to experience the city and BENCH offered an unusual canvas for artists to explore, infusing an everyday, seemingly unimportant object with new significance. 

Some of the benches from the project painted

More about BENCH

Project history, its supporters and stakeholders.

Find out more

Meet the artists and their projects

Read about the inspiration behind each artist's bench.

Find out more