PUBLIC art is easily ridiculed: a zany sculpture nobody wants, street-based pieces or performance to which nobody bats an eyelid, or a community art project which nobody hears about. But the latter deserves better because, when done right, community art projects have the public interest at heart.

And this city boasts a most unusual - and useful - public art project.

The Northmoor Urban Arts Project - part of ongoing regeneration efforts in Longsight - is celebrating its fifth anniversary by putting the finishing touches to the total redesign of a crosshatch of several streets in the Northmoor estate, off Stockport Road.

It's a tricky affair involving numerous partner organisations. But essentially, the street layouts have been altered, lighting enhanced, and the road surfaces brightened: each surface has part of a flower - cut from the same flower - melted into it at 2000 degrees. It's a simple metaphor of blooming regeneration.

John Rowe

John Rowe of Northmoor Urban Arts Project explains more, sitting in imiTate Gallery (623 Stockport Road - an active gallery which doubles as a kind of HQ for the project): 'It's about regeneration of a deprived area' it was about changing the road layout to give the roads back to the pedestrian 'cause there were a lot of joy riders.'

Sure enough, a stroll through the local estate conjures surprise. 'This is one of the finished products,' says Rowe of Purcell Street.

'The cars used to race up and down but now you can't go over 25mph.'

True, given the zigzag re-design on the road layout and, as Rowe points out: 'The trees in the middle of the road, the bollards' and brighter lights.'

And, certainly, it gives the streets back to pedestrians: 'Have you noticed we're walking in the middle of the road?' asks Rowe. Nope. He smiles.

This is a consummate example of artists engaging with a community for the good of the whole - not just to massage their own egos and aid their careers. To safeguard, community consultation has come hand-in-hand during this co-operative journey.

To read the rest of this feature buy this week's City Life (issue 554), out now priced '1.50.

The Northmoor Urban Arts Project is taking place on the Northmoor estate off Stockport Road. For more information call 0161 860 6524.

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