London Met’s CREATURE partners with leading arts organisations for major sculpture symposium News

The University’s Centre for Creative Arts, Culture and Engagement co-hosted the event in collaboration with The Warburg Institute, exploring the meaning behind today's monuments

Date: 27 October 2026

London Metropolitan’s Centre for Creative Arts, Culture and Engagement (CREATURE) hosted the third London Sculpture Week Symposium with The Warburg Institute. 

The symposium is an annual collaboration between CREATURE and high-profile partners in the arts sector including Frieze Sculpture, Sculpture in the City, The Line, East Bank and Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth. The symposium was supported by Bloomberg Connects and took place at The Warburg Institute.  

The theme of this year’s symposium was ‘Reframing Monumentality: Contemporary Sculptural Practices in the Public Realm.’  

Dr Jacek Ludwig Scarso (Reader in Art and Performance and Deputy Director of CREATURE) moderated a discussion bringing together artists, curators and cultural partners to explore how public art and monuments are changing in the 21st century.  

Moving past traditional ideas of large, permanent statues and connotations of authority, the symposium considered how today’s sculptures respond to a changing world, including shifting identity, digital culture and environmental change.  

The discussion brought together perspectives from across London’s public art scene, including:  

• Fatoş Üstek (Curator of Frieze Sculpture) in conversation with artists Özlem Gunyol and Mustafa Kunt 

• Jo Baxendale (Fourth Plinth, Greater London Authority) in conversation with Tamsin Ace (Director of East Bank) 

• Sarah Carrington (Director, The Line) in conversation with artist Mahtab Hussain 

• Stella Ioannou (Artistic Director, Sculpture in the City and Founding Director, LACUNA) in conversation with artist Hannah Starkey 

• Jo Baring, Director of the Ingram Collection and Author of 'Totem', gave a keynote speech 

On the symposium, Dr Scarso said: “Over the years, London Metropolitan University has become an important reference point for new developments in public art, both via our dedicated Masters in Public Art and Performative Practices and our Research Centre CREATURE.  

“Through CREATURE, we have developed long-standing collaborations with some of the UK’s leading institutions in this sector and, together, we have facilitated new conversations in relation to the evolving role of art and creative practices in public spaces.  

“Each year we interrogate new issues, ensuring that public art can be reflected upon as a dynamic, ever-changing practice, not confined to a specific medium, but always inclusive to all.” 

The recording of the Symposium will be freely available on the Bloomberg Connects App.