RNLI College Art Programme Strategy

HS Projects was appointed by RNLI in 2003 to devise an Art Programme Strategy for the new RNLI College.

The RNLI is a highly professional and well equipped organisation, funded entirely by donation. The new RNLI College was an ambitious venture intended to further enhance the RNLI’s reputation with its contemporary design and state of the art equipment, heralding it as a forward-looking 21st century organisation.

The Art Strategy established the overall vision and put forward a number of recommendations, including a programme of site specific commissions and a separate exhibition programme to create increased awareness of the RNLI, both internallly and externally, as an ambitious and forward thinking organisation.

We recommended the formation of an Art Committee to oversee and execute the vision of the Art Strategy. We identified four sites for public commissions and proposed a shortlist of artists. We also proposed two separate sites for temporary exhibition programmes; the atrium area that can be used as a gallery to either showcase works from the RNLI collection or be for hire; and the bar area for a changing exhibition programme from the RNLI’s photographic archive. 

The Art Strategy brought clarity, consistency of vision and purpose, as well as detailed practical guidance on implementing all the different elements of the programme.