Bringing Large Scale Public Art to Life with Artist Producer Lexi Zelda Stevens and Artists Megan Broadmeadow & Angela Davies

Ceri brings together three artists who transformed the Green Man Festival into a magical artistic playground. Lexi Zelda Stevens, Megan Broadmeadow, and Angela Davies share their experiences of creating ambitious installations in challenging outdoor environments. From holographic fans in the woods to midnight performances on rafts, they reveal the intricate dance of artistic vision, technical expertise, and weather management. The trio and Ceri give practical advice and inspiration about producing large scale public art and talk about the importance of building strong support teams.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Lexi believes the key to successful festival art programming is having meticulous contingency plans while giving artists complete creative freedom to lead their vision
• Megan discovered that having triple the expected technical support proved crucial when personal emergencies arose during installation of her holographic installation
• Transforming her gallery work for an outdoor festival context opened up new possibilities for Angela's performance and audience engagement.
• Producing festival art requires creating a calm, supportive environment amid chaos, focusing on safety while letting artists maintain creative control.
• Festival audiences interact with art differently than gallery visitors - some prefer to simply observe, while others want to understand the technical details.
• Angela realised that staging work next to water created unexpected opportunities for reflection, both literally and metaphorically, in her practice.
• Lexi's experience showed her that the best commissioned work comes from trusting artists who haven't worked outdoors before rather than playing it safe.
• Through her midnight performance, Angela discovered that festivals can create intimate, quiet moments of connection even within a busy event environment.

BEST MOMENTS

"Being a producer is kind of like saying sorry and thank you a lot. And maybe I hear you as well in there."

"Don't work alone. You're going to need some friends. You're going to need support. Use people's expertise."

"I was laying on this body of water where the film was projecting kind of beyond me... it was quite magical."

"Creating imagery that transcends the festival... and forgetting that you're even at a festival, that was really powerful."

"Just dream big"

"Don't try and make the art. My role is very clear in that I'm leading on safety and passing over audience experience."

"The opportunity to make something potentially super large scale that sat next to this body of water, this pond, on the estate... it was really incredible."

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://www.greenman.net

Guest links: 

Angela Davies

https://www.angeladaviesartist.co.uk/

@angeladaviesartist

Lexi Zelda Stevens: 

https://www.lexizeldastevens.com/

@helpingartistsmakework (producing) 

@LexiZeldastevens (own practice) 

Megan Broadmeadow

https://meganbroadmeadow.com/

https://www.instagram.com/meganbroadmeadow_artist/

PODCAST HOST BIO

With over 30 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

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