On thesubject of art

10:55am Monday 7th April 2008

A week or so back I caught an item on the BBC's ONE show about public art.

It involved former cricketer Phil Tufnell discussing the famous Angel of the North and the B of the Bang - a large spiky construction that stands near the City of Manchester stadium.

There was no mention of the Spirit of Sport, the distinctive work which has graced a roundabout near Bolton's Reebok Stadium since it was unveiled in December, 2005.

It features pictures of sports people, some of whom gained national fame but mostly those who have been connected with grass roots leagues and associations in the Bolton area.

Bolton Council had high hopes that the internally-illuminated sculpture would become a signature statue, synonymous with Bolton and an icon for the North West's continued regeneration.

Maybe I have missed it, but that does not seem to have happened.

I suspect you could take a photograph on to the streets of Birmingham, Bristol, Colchester or anywhere else in the country and have difficulty finding anybody who recognised it.

There were also suggestions that the Spirit of Sport would be the inspiration for various initiatives in the town and that new pictures would be added to "a living piece of public art" to honour subsequent generations of sporting heroes.

I may be wrong, but nothing seems to have happened on that front either.

It is a shame because I am a big fan of this kind of thing and I rather like the Spirit of Sport.

Is anything planned to give the project fresh impetus?