New Developments in York

York is a world-class heritage city and draws over four million visitors each year. Tourism contributes almost 300 million pounds to the economy of this ancient city annually and helps to create over 10,000 jobs. However, visitors’ tastes and expectations are changing and there is keen competition from other UK and European destinations.

An enlightened and integrated programme of investment is underway which aims to breathe new life into York’s historic urban environment and promises to vastly improve both visitors’ and residents’ experience of York City Centre, especially in the evening.

The early part of 2006 is a very significant time with much of the work progressed to date coming to fruition.

The Vision: What we hope to achieve

The projects outlined in this document are the result of a bid for funding made by the Economic Development Unit of the City of York Council to Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency. The inspiration for that bid came from the many historic cities on the continent where the streets at night are occupied not only by people who have been drinking in bars but by people young and old who have come into the city centre to sit in a café, to chat, to go to the theatre, to choir practice, to bring the whole family, including Children, out for dinner or simply to go for a walk in safety and admire the city itself.

The overall objectives of this integrated programme of investment are:

-Beneficial and balanced development of the evening economy of the city centre (a city which is vibrant in the evening with people going to restaurants, shops, cafes, bars, the theatre or simply for a walk in safe surroundings).

-Refresh York’s heritage/historic environment.

-New high quality, “must see” evening attractions in the city and through these new attractions, additional high spending, staying visitors to York and the wider region.

-Enhance York’s role as a regional gateway for the wider Yorkshire and Humber tourism industry (York as a honeypot destination).

-Generate additional employment in the tourism industry.

The programme is organised through the following key projects:

-York:Light, the City Centre Lighting Strategy

-The Renaissance Project

-Interpretive facilities for the City Walls

York:Light – the City Centre Lighting Strategy

York:Light is a comprehensive, ten-year plan for state-of-the-art lighting of the city’s major buildings and heritage sites, streets, parks, open spaces and riverside walks. It has been developed through extensive research of the city’s lighting needs and through consultation with representatives of The Civic Trust, Safer York Partnership, York Business Pride, York Tourism Bureau and other stakeholders.

York:Light will showcase York’s treasured buildings and spaces after dark and enhance the safety and prosperity of the city-centre for residents and visitors alike.

One of this project’s objectives is to make the city centre safer and, perhaps more importantly, to make it feel safer in the evening. Hopefully, lighting will discourage anti-social behaviour in the city centre at night. Lighting has a very successful track record in improving the level of footfall at night, thereby increasing the level of informal surveillance.

The lighting project will play a very important role in terms of our long-term strategy for Tourism in York. It is not a matter of visitor volume: we want visitors who stay longer, spend more money and thereby support more jobs and provide more uses for historic buildings in York.

April 2004 to March 2006

York:Light proposes re-lighting key buildings and structures in three main areas: the city’s Historic Core, around Bootham Bar/Exhibition Square and along the River Ouse. In addition, we propose to light Micklegate Bar to create a more attractive gateway to the City and to deter anti-social behaviour.

Proposed Lighting Projects:

-Bootham Bar, King’s Manor, the De Grey Rooms and York Art Gallery

-The Gate House, Museum Gardens

-Lendal Bridge, the Guildhall ad Ouse Bridge

-Faifax House, the Mason’s House, St Mary’s Castlegate and Clifford’s Tower

-Merchant Adventurer’s Hall, Foss Bridge and Fossgate

-All Saint’s, Pavement

-The Shambles and Low Petergate

-The Minster Towers (from East and South)

-Micklegate Bar

-Marble Arch (Leeman Road – already completed)

Timeline: York:Light

Much of the planning and design work has now been done and the first York:Light improvements will be switched on in two phases during 2006. Exact dates for each instalment are to be confirmed.

There is also a 10-year Masterplan, which will guide investment in all aspects of lighting up to 2014. In addition, the Masterplan will propose a series of modern lighting installations and supporting events or festivals.

The longer term investment

Within the framework of the York:Light Masterplan, a series of other buildings, structures and streets will be lit over the next 10 years and the potential for new lighting events, such as a major son et lumiere, will be explored.

Possibilities being considered include the City Walls and other Bars, the major towers and spires, the castle buildings and ‘The Eye of York’, riverside walkways and the buildings and pathways in the Museum Gardens. Most importantly, the Masterplan will develop a complete new architectural lighting scheme for York Minster – and a strategy for raising the funds to implement it.

Benefits

-Jobs: The lighting will help sustain employment in restaurants, venues, theatres, bars and hotels.

-Safety: Improved lighting will improve safety and the perception of safety within the city for both residents and visitors.

-Security: Studies in other cities demonstrate that lighting is more effective than other crime reduction measures such as CCTV.

-Showcasing the city by night: York:Light will improve the visibility and attractiveness of the city’s unique heritage assets after dark.

The Renaissance Project

Renaissance is a new initiative to develop state-of-the-art installations in public spaces in York, which will be accessible in the evening, respond to the city’s heritage while inspiring and showcasing the creative talent within the city.

Renaissance is a major opportunity to combine cultural objectives with those of the tourism and creative industries in York. The project is funded up to March 2006 by Yorkshire Forward and delivered, in partnership with the City Council and the First Stop York Tourism Partnership, by a panel of experts selected from the City’s Art commissioning agencies, Galleries, Museums, as well as new media and creative industries.

Projects arising from the Renaissance call for proposals, August 2004

In August 2004 The York Renaissance Project issued a call for proposals from creative industries in Yorkshire. The call for proposals was a tremendous success in that it provided the impetus for a huge amount of networking between visitor attractions, artists and creative technology companies. We received over 300 enquiries and very well developed proposals for 33 viable projects. From those proposals the Renaissance Committee chose to fund the development of three innovative projects:

-“Breadcrumbs”

-“Stained Glass” (working title) Projected artwork at St Mary’s Church, Castlegate

- “Dancing in the Streets” (now completed)

These projects are described in more detail below.

Breadcrumbs

ENDpapers Ltd, a York publishing house, launched the “Breadcrumbs” project in April 2005, which delivered:

1. A collection of stories set in York, written by York-based authors and illustrated by York-based artists. The book is aimed at children and sold nationally.

2. A series of walking trails act as an accompaniment to the stories in the book. The trails are marked by reflectors sunk into the pavements across the city, creating a ‘breadcrumb’ trail that can be followed (by kids and their families) by torchlight after dark.

“Stained Glass” (working title) – Projected artwork at St Mary’s Church, Castlegate (artists Sian Emmison and Vicki Long)

The St Mary’s project proposes to re-interpret the stained glass tradition by developing a video artwork that would be projected through the South window of St Mary’s ancient church on Castlegate. The artwork will represent, in contemporary form, many of the motifs and themes in medieval stained glass.

“Stained Glass” (working title) was unveiled in October during Sightsonic 2005 (digital arts festival).

Renaissance commissions

In addition to the projects which have been initiated through the Renaissance call for proposals, the Renaissance Committee have directly commissioned a number of installations: Pedestrian, Ghost ships on the Ouse and Weather Patterns.

Weather Patterns

Loop.PH (Rachel Wingfield and Mathias Gmachl, www.loop.ph) have been commissioned by the York Renaissance Project to create an art installation for the exterior façade of the York City Art Gallery. Loop.PH have been chosen because their unique combination of traditional artisan skills with cutting edge technologies will breathe new life into Exhibition Square and renew public interest in the Art Gallery itself.

Loop.pH uses electronically responsive and light emitting surfaces as a form of visual communication in built spaces. “Electroluminescence” has been applied to interior textiles in order to create reactive sensed environments. This installation, however, will be the first of its kind. No other building on the planet has been installed with this ‘electronic’ light emitting glass. At York Art Gallery Loop.PH proposes to create contemporary luminous windows inspired by the patterns and decorative surfaces found in York's historic buildings. With programming and the use of sensors the "light-emitting windows" will become responsive to their surroundings, providing a visual reflection of their environment.

Timeline: Renaissance

-Viking themed Projections, by York Artist, Nigel Sandor were shown at two sites along the river simultaneously from February 11th to 20th.

-“Dancing in the Streets”; was launched on March 11th (to open the York Festival of Science and Technology).

-“Breadcrumbs”, to be confirmed, launch event planned for April.

-“Weather Patterns”, by Loop.PH on the façade of York Art Gallery is scheduled to be ‘switched on’ in May 2005.

-“Stained Glass” (working title) was unveiled in October during Sightsonic 2005 (digital arts festival).

Renaissance second call for proposals’ – February/March 2005.

Interpretive facilities for the City Walls

The Roman and medieval walls which encircle the historic City of York are some of the finest and best preserved town defences in the United Kingdom and Europe. York City Walls offer some of the best views of the historic City. They are a greenway and ecological habitat encircling the historic core of the City.

At present, enjoyment of the walls is limited by the lack of interpretive facilities and the fact that only the able-bodied can walk along them. The perception that the walls can be unsafe for children prevents them being fully used by schools.

The City of York Council is currently in the process of inviting companies specialising in heritage development and interpretive design to tender for the design and installation of:

-A scheme of interpretive panels for the City Walls of York (at street level).

-A scheme of discreet and simple waymarkers to be placed on the City Walls (at wall walk level).

The above should form an integrated scheme of interpretive and orientational information for the City Walls.

Aims and Objectives

-Improve the user experience of the walls and in turn use the walls to improve the visitor experience of York.

-Develop the City Walls as a coherent product, with a strong identity within the wider York product, enhancing the impression of York as a historic city destination and making the Walls a must-see experience.

-Use the City Walls to influence visitor behaviour and exploration of the city, spreading visitor load and spend.

-Use the Walls to unlock the history and amenities of the city in manageable sections.

-Provide recreational and leisure opportunities within both urban and green spaces along and around the City Walls.

Timeline: Interpretive facilities for the City Walls

Installation date to be confirmed, all work will be completed by the end of March 2006.

Renaissance – Completed Projects

Pedestrian

On 14 October 2004 the public launch of The Renaissance Project took place. Artist Paul Kaiser was brought to York for the event in order to speak to local artists and companies at a symposium entitled “Creative Technology in Public Spaces”. ‘Pedestrian’, Paul Kaiser’s prestigious video artwork, in which small figures, seen from birds-eye perspective, congregate and disperse in an everyday but mysterious fashion, was projected onto the ancient pavements of Stonegate for a month.

Ghost ships on the Ouse

Cutting edge technology was used to project artwork by York artist Nigel Sandor ( www.nigelsandor.com) across the river from dusk on Friday 11 February until Sunday 20 February 2005, during the second week of the Jorvik Viking Festival. The artwork was commissioned by The York Renaissance Project to support the Jorvik Viking Festival, which is organised every year by the York Archaeological Trust. Nigel has taken inspiration from Viking sagas, songs and artwork and from their great seafaring tradition. The objective of his work was to create a visually enchanting ambience along the riverside in the evenings during the festival and to provoke an even greater interest and debate about York's Viking heritage.

Dancing in the Streets

“Dancing in the Streets” is part of the Renaissance Project and has been developed by York Company KMA Creative Technology. It is a lighting projection that uses the movements of its own audience to create a kinetic light sculpture that is projected into the streets of York after dark. The pavement is the canvas for this work that actively invites passers-by to walk all over it. Once within the piece, the public become the performers in a constantly changing dance between themselves and the projections that they are surrounded by.

“Dancing in the Streets” was switched on in Davygate, York on 11 March 2005 to launch the York Festival of Science and Technology. The light-hearted work is open to everyone to enjoy and play with. It is the third creative installation by the Renaissance Project and the first to result from the call for proposals issued in August 2004. Due to the success of the first call, the Renaissance Committee will shortly issue a second call for proposals.

For any further information and your free guide to York please contact: York Visitor Information Centre, Tel: 01904 550099, email: info@visityork.org or visit the website at www.visityork.org

Press contact: Kay Hyde, PR Manager - First Stop York tourism partnership, Visit York, Tel: 01904 554451, email: kh@visityork.org website: www.visityork.org