Artranspennine98 was an exhibition of public art that combined the method and
language of the art museum (the bringing together of artworks to create the
ephemeral experience of an exhibition) with the method and language of those
commissioning public art in the UK (the permanent siting of artworks to create
a legacy within the public domain). It occupied a specific territory, bounded
by Liverpool to the west and Hull to the east and traversed by the M62 motorway.
Artranspennine98 aimed to foster a new sense of pride in this territory (diverse
as it is, encompassing Yorkshire and Lancashire) through the proposition that
it should be considered a region . It was always intrinsically concerned with
its own legacy, both in terms of the number of permanent works of art situated
in the public domain and in terms of the precedent for inter-institutional cooperation
across the region.The exhibition involved 64 artists working on 40 projects at 30 sites across the transpennine region and was a joint initiative of the Tate Gallery, Liverpool and the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. Curators-in-chief Lewis Biggs and the late Robert Hopper worked for some five years to develop the programme and coordinate the involvement of numerous regional institutions.
The intention was to create a unique art exhibition which also enriched the understanding of the area. It was the largest exhibition of its kind ever mounted in the United Kingdom and was in itself the recipient of the largest ever Lottery award allocation for a single exhibition, close to £1.8 million, in addition to approximately £1.2 million of private funding and other sponsorship. The presentation of Artranspennine98 was based on the region, not on the personality of the artists. It articulated a new impetus toward regional association and the role of cultural forums: it understood that England is seen from the south and until there is real regionalism, in the sense of devolution of resources and decision making, there won’t be an art world apart from disparate elements such as the Henry Moore Institute, etc, outside of London. Furthermore, the exhibition asserted that the curators had as much right as anyone to propose a region.
There had been a Transpennine Ltd (a company lobbying politicians at Westminster and Brussels) in existence for some years, supported by business and local authority subscribers ambitious for the region to be accepted as a single entity from a planning point of view. The economic potential has been recognised by the European Union in its designation as “the growth corridor for the 21st Century” - the E20 route. This is the trade corridor that commences in Limerick, spans the North of England and ends in St.Petersberg. The Transpennine Railway built in the 1860’s was the last element in the economic and industrial infrastructure that gave the region its world importance in the 19th Century. The region is one of the most densely populated and urbanised places in the world.
The transpennine regions contains some 42 universities, 456 hospitals, it produces one third of the gross domestic product of the UK, consists of a land mass larger than Belgium and containing some 13 million inhabitants. It is, in short, a small country.