Chrysalis Arts launches Public Art Sustainability Assessment (PASA)

The first ever set of free guidelines to help artists and commissioners embrace the sustainable as well as the artistic impact of their work has been launched by Chrysalis Arts, a public art, training and development agency based in rural North Yorkshire.

Public Art Sustainability Assessment (PASA) is a free interactive assessment tool which aims to promote sustainable practice in public art to artists and commissioners. It has been developed to assist Chrysalis Arts in the process of analysing and evaluating projects that they are involved in.

The online interactive checklist is easy to use and covers the key issues which surround sustainable practice in public art. This checklist is supported by full guidelines and useful case studies.

To use the free PASA checklist and download the guidelines please register at Pasa Guidelines. Registered users can answer questions about their art activity or project online and when the checklist is completed, they can download their answers as a pdf document.

PASA has been created for artists and creative practitioners as well as public art organisations, local authorities, developers, commissioners, funders, architects, landscape architects, engineers, contractors, communities, schools and anyone else who may be involved in the commissioning, development, creation, maintenance and decommissioning of public art at different scales and in different contexts.

Chrysalis Arts has developed PASA in consultation with a wide range of partners – including artists and arts organisations, local authority officers, specialists from higher education establishments and environmental consultants Gaia Research, as well as looking to government sources and other creative practitioners such as architects for guidance on sustainable principles and practice.

Chrysalis Arts views PASA as very much the starting point in the debate around public art practice and sustainability. It hopes that by throwing the debate open to others, the result in the long term will be a more sustainable way of working.

Read more about Chrysalis Arts on the Arts Council website.