Welcome to Birmingham! How local people and artists transformed Digbeth Coach Station into an award-winning gateway

Costs and savings

The original budget for the project was £60,000 - £80,000 funded by National Express, however, after persuading the company to invest in the process rather than ‘plonk art’ to fulfil planning conditions, a much richer project evolved.  National Express invested a total of £350,000 in the project – evolving into a strategy following a thorough research and development process, due to the level of research and community/young people engagement in phase 1 a report was produced by EC-Arts and the lead artists that evidenced the need for a strategy rather than a single commission. National Express were willing to invest in this.  EC-Arts were successful in a further £87,500 public funding. 

By engaging the community with each step of the process it allowed the project to reach more networks, resulting in numerous ‘in kind’ contributions, i.e. Glenn Howells Architects sponsored 35k in kind towards the Irish Quarter artwork specifically for the Irish community.  South Birmingham College sponsored £2,000 in kind to print the project publications.  Birmingham City Council sponsored £15,000 cash towards the Irish community artwork and £5-£7,000 in kind with officer resources.  Aston Manor Transport sponsored the vintage midland red buses in kind for the launch, it was a knock on effect.  The projects engagement with the community and residents of Birmingham throughout the duration evoked a snowball of civic pride and engagement resulting in overwhelming support from private and public sector all willing the project on and supporting in every way.

Claire Farrell provided Governance International with this case study on 18th May 2010.