| Description | Minutes of a committee established to draw the attention of the Senate to matters affecting the visual and physical environment of the University, and to give advice to the Senate on such matters; to make proposals regarding environmental and landscape matters in the University; and to liaise with and be available to advise the Estates Architect and the Estates and Buildings Officer
Membership consisted of representatives from each of the Faculties and from the School of Education, as well as two student representatives and a representative of the Works and Maintenance Committee. The Works of Art Committee was absorbed into the new Committee. No discrete set of minutes of the Works of Art Committee survives in the University Archives, though minutes of the first meeting of the Committee on the effects of Development on the University Environment, held on 19 November 1974, includes a copy of minutes of the meeting of the Works of Art Committee held on 9 November 1973, as well as a report on a meeting to discuss the further loans of works of art by the University from the Arts Council, part of the Arts Council loan scheme, dated 16 September 1974. Minutes of the meeting of the Committee on the effects of Development on the University Environment held on 14 January 1975 contain replies from academic and administrative departments concerning the possible long term loan of paintings or prints from the Arts Council for display in spaces within those departments, and minutes of meetings held in 1975 continue to discuss the Arts Council loan scheme
It appears that members of the Works of Art Committee had indicated that there should be a consultative body drawn from members of University staff to consider plans for new buildings and alterations affecting the external appearance of existing buildings and the landscape on the Edgbaston campus. A Working Party on the University Environment had proposed that an advisory committee should be set up, but it seems that the Planning and Priorities Committee was opposed to the establishment of such a committee, as it would interfere with its own remit to look after the planning and development of buildings on the campus, and the Estates Architect agreed with this view. Essentially, the committee's powers were confined to expressing the views of a body of people working at the University where questions affecting the appearance of the University's buildings and grounds were concerned
Minutes of the meeting held on 8 May 1975 include details about planned architectural developments on the campus, specifically the construction of the swimming pool, and future developments of the Sports Centre, and plans for the development of the Post Experience Centre on the east of Edgbaston Park Road, where the University had acquired Park House and Garth House. Minutes of the meeting held on 10 October 1975 refer to the work of a Working Party on Building Design which reported to the committee, and to aspects of the 'Landscape Circulation System' which looked at the presentation of the Barbara Hepworth statue, congestion at the South Gate of the University, and the possible provision of land for a 'leisure garden' for members of staff to work in. These minutes also mention the designation of certain areas of Edgbaston as conservation areas. Many of these items of business were continued to the meeting held on 16 January 1976 at which the committee also considered the building of a railway station on the campus
The last surviving minutes of the committee are those of the meeting held on 7 October 1976. These minutes contain information about ongoing items of business from previous meetings, and state that there was to be another meeting of the committee on 20 May 1977. An agenda survives for this meeting, which states that the Academic Executive had recommended to the Senate that the committee continue for another year, and that suggestions for a new title for the committee were to be considered. |