A new sculpture has been revealed in Halesowen which celebrates the town’s cultural heritage and identity.
The new public artwork, You Are Here, was created by Black Country artist, Tom Hicks in collaboration with Ikon Gallery and Transport for West Midlands.
It’s located at the Cross Street Local Travel Point in Halesowen, a public green space providing options for active and environmentally friendly local travel.
You Are Here is the first public sculpture for Hicks, who is best known as creator of the documentary photography project, Black Country Type. The sculpture draws inspiration from Hicks’ photograph Lollipop (Oldbury), mirroring the vibrant blue and pink of the image.
Commissioned by Ikon and TfWM as part of the new Cross Street Local Travel Point, the project began with a series of community photo-poetry walks led by Hicks in collaboration with award-winning poet Liz Berry.
Participants were invited to explore and document their urban surroundings, making connections between image and text. With a focus on local signage, typography and handmade lettering, the walks informed the visual language of the sculpture.
Incorporating unique trade names and typefaces of local businesses – including the recently closed Dancers, You Are Here serves as a tribute to the stories embedded in the local landscape.
For Hicks, signage and typography is a powerful way of locating place and time, evoking nostalgia and memory. He said: “This commission from Ikon and TfWM has provided me with a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the visual landscape of the Black Country.
“Working on a public artwork has sparked an exciting new direction for my practice – informed by my photography, I have expanded into three-dimensional work and explored materials, construction techniques and paint treatments.
“It has been manufactured in the region that it celebrates and one of the greatest pleasures has been working directly with factories in the Black Country to fabricate the work – their time, patience and expertise has been invaluable.
“During our guided photo walks around Halesowen, I was also fortunate to hear local people talk with genuine warmth about the town.
“My art practice encourages people to observe and appreciate their immediate surroundings and the letters and symbols that appear on the artwork were all found in Halesowen.”
Fabricated and powder-coated by Midtherm, a manufacturer based in Dudley since 1968, the sculpture envelops a metal framework supplied by TfWM and mirrors the structural forms that frequently appear in Hicks’ photographs, referencing the external skins of metal-clad industrial buildings and the steel manufacturing processes housed within.
TfWM is running the Local Travel Point pilot to test whether public space, active travel services like WM Cycle Hire, and public transport information can be co-located to increase physical activity, reduce reliance on driving, and build community focal points around sustainable travel.
Chris Brown, Senior Future Mobility Developer for Transport for West Midlands, added: “You Are Here was commissioned to enhance the sense of place at one of three test locations, and to help build community ownership of the new infrastructure.
“Alongside the mosaics at Perry Barr and University stations and Ozzy the Bull at New Street Station, this is another West Midlands example of public art being used to improve the transport network.
“One of our key aims is to provide customers with experiences of using sustainable transport that they want to repeat, and we hope this artwork has an impact by making the Local Travel Point on Cross Street a lasting and easily recognisable local landmark that’s a joy to use.
“We loved having Tom and Ikon – one of the region’s foremost cultural institutions – lead this project. Helping people to rely more on nearby shops and services for everyday needs has always been a key idea behind Local Travel Points, and we are delighted that – through co-creation – project participants discovered such a creative way to weave local businesses into the artwork.”
Ikon has a longstanding history and expertise in commissioning artworks in public and commercial spaces, including a reimagining of the Queen Victoria statue in Birmingham City Centre for the Commonwealth Games; Osman Yousefzada wrapping the full exterior of Selfridges in 2021 and Gillian Wearing’s A Real Birmingham Family outside the Library of Birmingham.
The launch of the new sculpture was attended by partners, photo walk participants and local supporters, including Halesowen MP, Alex Ballinger.
He said: “It’s fantastic to see You Are Here celebrated so warmly: a bold, beautiful artwork created with the community, for the community.
This sculpture is more than just a striking addition to our public space; it’s a powerful reminder that creativity thrives in places like Halesowen.
Too often, towns in the Black Country are overlooked by the cultural sector, but this project shows what’s possible when local stories, artistic vision, and public collaboration come together.
I’m incredibly proud to see this kind of work happening in my constituency, and I’m grateful to Tom Hicks, Ikon Gallery, Transport for West Midlands, and all the local residents who helped shape the piece.
You Are Here sends a message, especially to young people, that art belongs here, that it’s for everyone and that our local identity is something worth celebrating. I hope this is just the beginning of more creative investment and inspiration across Halesowen and the Black Country.”