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sculpture The Fish, in Curtis Gardens, Acocks Green, was also a piece of play sculpture. Children were encouraged to touch and climb all over it. Truly a piece of sculpture to be enjoyed.

Some public art of the period is now sadly neglected, some has disappeared into storage and some has gone with the destruction of the buildings of which it was a part. Where are the fabulous bronze doors of John Madin’s NatWest Tower, and where are Trewin Copplestone’s bulls from the old 1960s Bull Ring shopping centre?

Into the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, public art in the city moved away from these democratic ideals to the principle of “the open-air gallery” where the work of famous artists started to appear on our streets.

With Iron Man, sadly now removed from Victoria Square, Anthony Gormley sought to create something monumental in scale but not representative of any hierarchical social order. This is in sharp contrast to the nearby statue of Queen Victoria. Spirit of Enterprise by Tom Lomax once graced Centenary Square, commemorating Birmingham’s industrial heritage.

Dhruva Mistry’s group of four works in Victoria Square, which includes The River (aka ‘The Floozie in the Jacuzzi’) is another monumental and timeless piece.

Recent local authority funding by public/private partnerships is arguably driven more by marketing than any love of the arts. There is a welcome move currently to embrace a wider definition of public art that includes permanent and temporary work of many kinds and offers opportunities for new and local artists.

A lot of permanent works of this period have disappeared to make way for development and we wonder if they will ever see the light of day again.

We have retained an awful lot of those statues of the great and the good. Returning the pieces of public art that celebrated humanity would go some way to redress the balance. Our public art tells the story of our city. These pieces need to be preserved and kept in the public eye.

Brutiful Birmingham is a campaign group established to raise awareness of and fight for the retention of the best of late C20 buildings in Birmingham.

We welcome your views: www. facebook.com/Brutiful-Birmingham, follow us on twitter: twitter.com/ brutifulbrum, or email us at: brutiful2015@gmail.com.

Mary Keating represents

Brutiful Birmingham