Public art

Crawley boasts an extensive collection of public artworks throughout the town.

Many of the works are site specific, designed with great care by professional artists to reflect their location. Others are inspired by regeneration projects and community need with residents contributing to the creative process.

60 Arrows

Gary Breeze

Location: Ifield Avenue

60 Arrows brings together Crawley’s modern and historical connections with transport, journeys and travel and is designed to be seen while on the move.

Active Crawley

Sharon Elphick

Location: K2 Crawley

The first in a series of artworks for K2 Crawley, ‘Elastica’ involved photographing Hawth Gymnastics Club in various gymnastic poses. These images were mirrored and repeated.

‘Red, Yellow, Green and Blue’ involved photographing Crawley Town Football Club at two separate home games.

‘K2 Crawley Climb’ shows climbing sessions at the centre. The climbing wall was chosen for the patterns created by the multi-coloured climbing holds. 
 

Aerial

Laura Johnston

Location: K2 Crawley

The piece was inspired by physical movement. The aim was to create a dynamic form that animates the space through the projection of light and colour. Dichroic glass changes colour depending on light and angle of view.

CD Bollards

David Watson

Location: K2 Crawley

The bollards aim to create a piece of artwork that is functional, integrates with the building and explores the issues of waste reuse.

The CDs are made from polycarbonate, the bollards use stainless steel and the lights are solar powered.

Crawley’s Sporting Excellence

Ryan Hughes and Emma Mitchell

Location: K2 Crawley

Crawley’s sporting heroes are celebrated on a wall within the leisure centre, with a graphical portrait and information plaque outlining their career highlights. Created and funded by Crawley Borough Council.

Community project

Bruce Williams

Location: Langley Green shopping parade

A series of intricate artworks created using high-tech fabrication techniques. The piece incorporates paving, seating and bollards and was created with the Langley Green community and schools. 

The project was part of the regeneration of Langley Green’s parade of shops. The materials are robust and manipulated to play with light, creating effects that are delicate and subtle.

Flying Spiral

Ray Smith

Location: The Hawth roundabout

The piece’s form is a large cortex self-weathering steel spiral peaking with a flying figure. A number of possible interpretations can be suggested for this piece including flight, dancer or music note. 

Giant Football

Gordon Young

Location: The Peoples Pension Stadium

A fun, pace-making sculpture linking the Crawley road entrance to The Peoples Pension Stadium and Crawley Town Football Club.

Glacial Boulders

Jane Fordham and David Parfitt

Location: The Broadway

The boulders are intended as a symbolic monument to the life of the town and its communities.

Individuals were encouraged to engage in the design process by providing their signatures which were used in decorative designs engraved into the nine boulders set within a landscaped enclave at the eastern side of the town centre.

Glass Columns

David Watson

Location: K2 Crawley

Blue bottles and green bottles came from a local restaurant and the rest came from bottle banks. The window glass came from damaged glass salvaged from skips at the K2 Crawley building site and a Crawley Glazing company. 

The piece promotes a feeling of growth, aspiration, achievement and a fascination for using recycled materials to create public artworks.

Graffiti Cube

Bewbush Youth Centre and Julian Johnson

Location: Bewbush

Young people from Bewbush created imagery inspired from their neighbourhood and helped paint this popular piece of street art.

Lion

Christian Funnell

Location: Tilgate Nature Centre

The Lion sculpture stands as a symbol of nature. From a distance the sculpture has the monumental presence of a 19th century, patriotic sculpture, however on closer inspection this dark mass is constructed from many planes. The viewer’s paradox is whether the sculpture is a collection of strips of metal or the image of a lion.

Making a Mark

Sam Murray and Rachel Cowell

Location: Broadfield Barton

The mosaic was created through extensive workshops with the local community and schools. The piece uses imagery of a map to interlink Broadfield Barton and a theme of hands, which connects people of the neighbourhood who use the busy shopping parade.

Making a Mark

Steven Follen

Location: Bewbush

Part of the Bewbush regeneration scheme, it features 40 paving blocks containing metal profiles based on drawings made and developed by residents based on the themes of ‘nature’ and ‘dispersal’.

Martlets Tree

Peter Parkinson and Richard Quinnell

Location: Crawley Library

The Martlets Tree celebrates the heraldic origin of 'The Martlets' with over a hundred tiny Martlet birds. 

The 'Tree' features four key images:

  • Hammers
  • Agriculture
  • Stagecoach
  • Aeroplane

Swans Landing

David Norris

Location: Bewbush Millpond

'Swans Landing' depicts a gathering of stainless steel swans landing on the waters of the Bewbush Millpond. 

The Clouds are High and the Sky is Wide

Kate Munro

Location: Maidenbower

The Clouds are High and the Sky is Wide is inspired by a line from a Hilaire Belloc poem. Three stretching figures from 'bronzed' fibreglass resin mounted on oak trunks, which turn gently towards the wind. 

The Golden Tree

Joss Smith

Location: Historic High Street

The sculpture’s base is a York sandstone acorn cup to depict the Jurassic limestone under the area and the fact that Crawley was once forest. 

The middle section, a granite anvil shape, represents the long history of iron working in the area, while the huge polished bronze axe-head above is the same shape as several which have been found locally. 

The sculpture is topped by two crows to remind us that Crawley was originally called Crow Lea, a place of crows.

The Vessel

Janine Creaye

Location: Walled Garden at Tilgate Park

A sculpture made up of base, pedestal and vessel featuring intricate relief work reflecting the four paths that lead its location. The imagery includes horses, referencing to the original building of the Tilgate Estate and the horses that were once resident in the gardens.

Willow

Reece Ingram

Location: The Hawth Theatre

Willow is a 13ft totem pole carved from oak situated on the wooded area immediately outside the front of the theatre. 

The totem pole inspired sculpture tells a story using carvings of The Winds in the Willows characters, Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toad, making reference to the woodland nearby. 

Wooden Cows and Totem Pole

Simon Groves

Location: Worth Park

West Sussex based chainsaw artist depicts the heritage and landscape of the well-loved Worth Park in both of these pieces. The cows are located in the meadow where jersey cows grazed in the 1850s.

The totem pole stands in front of Ridley’s Court and brings together elements of the heritage and natural world. The projects were funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Wooden Sculptures

Simon Groves

Location: Tilgate Nature Centre

A trail of fun, life-like wood carvings which enliven the paths and trails around Tilgate Nature Park. Tactile and interactive for children and families, the sculptures were created on-site with timber located from the park.