Space for Art

American cosmonaut, © Foxtongue (Jhayne), 2008, Flickr

As our friends at Google gently celebrate (hooray for art on the web!), it’s the 50^th anniversary today of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s history-making Earth orbit, the first example of human spaceflight.

My colleague Andrea Rose, Director of the British Council’s global work with Visual Arts, interviewed Yuri’s daughter Elena yesterday about her father’s legacy.  This summer the Russian national space agency is gifting the British Council with a statue of the famous space man, which will sit opposite a statue of Captain Cook outside British Council offices in London.

As an American, I remember getting a very one-sided conversation about the space race in school, so it’s fascinating to see this example of British and Russian friendship blossoming through public art.  I’ve walked through this plaza behind Trafalgar Square countless times, but I’m glad I’ll get a chance come July to ponder exactly why we choose who we do to memorialize, whether it’s in school or in statues.