The Points of Intersection public art project unveiled at the Future Business Centre Cambridge
Funders, supporters, tenants and friends of Allia Future Business Centre in Cambridge gathered to watch the unveiling of The Points of Intersection public art project and celebrate Allia Future Business Centre’s 2nd anniversary.
An important detail of completing the Future Business Centre was a planning requirement to install a public artwork. Working with Acuity Arts, four artists were commissioned to create works with the central piece created by Helen Marshall, artistic director of The People’s Picture and famous British artist. This four metre high photomosaic contains 4500 photos of investors, local businesses, schools and joins a number of other artworks and projects on and around the building. Other pieces include: ‘A Step Up’ by Chris Wood, a corridor installation by Bonnie Craig and workshops lead by Vinny Stapely.
Allia opened the Future Business Centre in November 2013 and since then has been a home to social and environmental ventures that want to have a positive impact on people and the planet. It has supported three incubation programmes for start-up businesses including Cambridge Social Ventures, been a home to more than 75 ventures, contributed to the creation of 200 new jobs and provided business support and advice to more than 300 ventures.
Tim Jones, Allia Chief Executive said “We couldn’t have achieved what we have done in the past two years without the support of many people and organisations and we celebrate and recognise the contribution of our investors, supporters, community and colleagues in our Points of Intersection public art installation now on display”
Many of the investors in the Future Business Centre attended the unveiling including Xaar plc, ARM plc, Abcam plc, Interserve PLC, Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce, Cambridge City Council, Real VNC Ltd TTP Group plc and Method Creative.
Dominic Vergine, ARM’s Head of Sustainability and CR said: “ARM has been delighted to support Allia over the years with their Future Business Centre to help more social and environmental enterprises start up and grow. It is a great pleasure to see our financial support represented in an innovative and creative way through art. We hope many more Cambridge businesses will be supported by the Future Business Centre in years to come.”
Dipak Mistry, Acuity Arts who managed the art project for Allia said: “From the outset of very early discussions with Allia we realised we always wanted to consider the tenants and users of the Allia business centre and the impact the artwork would have on them. We liked the idea of germination and growth, social and environmental values and wanted to convey this in the work we undertook”
Caroline Hyde, Allia Director of Workspace and Enterprise Support said “A vital component of the public art project was to create a piece of work that creatively reflects the notion of a ‘wall of support’ – acknowledging both the support Allia has received from the local community, business community and large number of individuals as well as illustrating the support Allia offers to its users and community neighbours. We hope that this final image represents several things; the potential of the seed head waiting to unfold; the start of something that has so much promise; the protection around the bud to ensure its safe emergence; and the wall of support offered by the leaves standing shoulder to shoulder.
She added: “The Future Business Centre, like so many of the ventures we in turn support, continues to grow and live up to its potential and has shown us what a demand and appetite there is in Cambridge, and now Peterborough, for what we do. We just needed the support of many people and organisations to come to fruition and for that we are very grateful to all”
The works can be viewed by all members of the public at the Future Business Centre, open from 9 to 5.30 Monday to Friday.
