Futurecity have been appointed by Berkeley Homes to develop and manage public realm art commissions for Wye Dene, a new development in High Wycombe.

The first part of these commissions is a series of community engagement projects, Masterclasses in Sitting, by art and architecture group, public works.

A Chair for Arching is the second in this series.

public works will collaborate with community groups, individuals in High Wycombe and the National School of Furniture at Bucks New University in order to activate the new communal spaces of Wye Dene.

Between January and March 2015 artist group public works will be hosting a series of talks, which will bring alive High Wycombe’s rich furniture making history and the unique tradition of building celebratory chair arches.

The talks are part of public works latest project entitled Masterclasses in Sitting, which uses ‘sitting’ as a way of exploring our relationships to the places we occupy.

As the commission is taking shape over the coming months we will be inviting speakers to highlight various aspect associated with High Wycombe’s rich history as the centre for furniture production and draw connections to its present and future. At each session public works will present the development of its proposal to build ‘A Chair for Arching’ which will result in a small scale, temporary chair arch for the new Wye Dene development in Wycombe Marsh.