It’s been a tricky year, but we believe our continued success in delivering great public art is down to the team that delivers it, and creative collaboration is core to everything we do at FrancisKnight.

This year we have been fortunate once again to partner with some wonderfully inspiring people from across the country, with our hugely varied portfolio. We’ve progressed several projects in our hometown of Maidstone in Kent, as well as further afield across the County of Kent to Ashford, along the Thames Estuary to Dartford and Ebbsfleet, into the London Borough of Croydon and all the way over in Oxfordshire.

This geographic spread of work builds on previous years which have seen us deliver projects in Medway, Gravesend, the Isle of Sheppey, the Yorkshire Dales, and Sussex, amongst other places. We always enjoy exploring new locations and forging working relationships in different areas. We look forward to travelling even further afield in the year to come. In 2023, we have continued to partner on both public realm projects with local authorities, adding value within regeneration and placemaking schemes, as well as creating places of distinction through working with private sector developers and housing associations.

Many projects have also involved planning and managing meaningful public engagement – celebrating people and places with communities, such as our work with schools at Parsonage Place and at Alkerden. The artists, artworks and media we have commissioned have also been varied, ranging from iconic bronze and sustainable willow sculptures to a community-illustrated canvas map and architect-designed follies.

We have progressed projects through many of the different stages of our Process Map this year too, from creating a public art plan for Didcot, to artist appointment at Grovelands Road, securing planning at Rosewood and all the way through to final installation in Dartford. In addition to working on our client projects, we enjoyed publishing our second season of the Talking Art Podcast earlier this year and reaching the milestone of 1,000 downloads for the series so far. You can catch up here if you have missed any of the episodes.

We were also delighted to be shortlisted with our associates LUC and BPTW and artists Christopher Tipping and Katayoun Dowlatshahi for this year’s Planning Awards for Best use of Arts, Culture or Sport in the Placemaking category for our work with Countryside and Hyde New Homes at Rochester Riverside Phases 1 & 2. There was an amazing response to entries, and the calibre of projects was exceptional this year, which made the competition extremely tough! So, we are extremely proud to have made it through to the shortlist. Congratulations to all involved.

Finally, we would like to thank all the lovely artists we work with, for remaining so positive, keeping the faith in the projects (despite lengthy delays) and delivering everything and more. Special thanks go to Walter Bailey, Jo Chapman, FleaFolly, Chris Tipping, Katayoun Dowlatshahi, Amy Goodman, Rob Turner, Julia Clarke, Rona Smith, Jason Mulligan, Nicole Mollett and José Den Hartog. You are all fabulous and we couldn’t do our job without you.

We look forward to keeping you updated as all of our current projects continue to move forward in the coming months, and we are also excited about announcing some new works in due course!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a great year ahead.