Up to £50,000 will be spent over the next 12 months to create new public artworks outside the Museum of Somerset in Taunton town centre.

Arts Taunton has been working since its inception to bring local artists, businesses, arts organisations and local authorities together to make Taunton “a major regional arts hub and destination town”.

The organisation’s latest endeavour will see multi-award-winning artist Emma Smith create new artworks to be installed in and around the Museum of Somerset, which lies on Castle Green.

Taunton Town Council’s grants committee voted in early-April to provide £2,500 towards the project’s delivery, following on from a £5,000 donation from the now-defunct Somerset West and Taunton Council.

The artwork is expected to cost £50,000 in total and will be installed by mid-2025.

Ms Smith’s artworks will reflect “the history and future of climate change in Taunton”, taking inspiration from the museum’s marine collections, the county’s flood defences (including the Avalon Marshes), Taunton’s revolutionary political past and its current status as a garden status.

Her initial concept will involve several artworks, which will be positioned in a wild-flower meadow near the Museum of Somerset’s moat (not far from the footbridge into Goodland Gardens), within the museum’s courtyard and on Castle Green, not far from the bus station.

A spokesman for Arts Taunton said: “The sculptures will be positioned to give a sense of them emerging from the site, making their way the moat and out into the town.

“The artwork imagines a future era of environmental healing with sculptures of future species positioned to give a sense of them emerging from the site, making their way from the moat and out into the town.

“The idea of the wild-flower meadow is to place nature at the heart of Taunton.

“The meadow will actively contribute to biodiversity in the town centre and support Taunton in promoting what it means to be a climate-aware garden town today.

“We are now seeking funding for the detailed design, fabrication and installation of the artwork.”

“The estimated cost is around £50,000. The target date for installation is early-summer 2025.”

For more details about the project, visit www.artstaunton.co.uk.