The spectacular rise in the commissioning of public art the United Kingdom has experienced in the last few decades – a rise inaugurated principally under the impulse of New Labour who calibrated much of its support to the cultural industries according to their potential regenerative impact on depressed areas around the country – has been accompanied by the development of structures experimenting with the unusual, often surprising, placement of art in the environment. In the wake of the institutional critique movement, sites beyond the gallery have offered fresh perspectives. Yet, far from simply getting rid of both a roof and an academy, the use of mostly urban public space has triggered new reflections on the varying degrees of publicness of both art and the city that accommodates it. Britain has been at the forefront of a privatisation of public space, and this has changed the way art occupies outside locations there. Artists who have made location an integral part of their practice have often favoured ruined environments, recession-hit shops, or in-between spaces which are often readily accessible because it saves owners costs on security, maintenance and business rates taxed on empty buildings. Besides their economical advantages, these interim spaces, disused offices, or houses (but also whole areas under redevelopment like King’s Cross) also provide interesting unstable backgrounds against which the works are created – all the while running the risk of being co-opted by commercial interests and a new pop-up culture. I would like to present how different commissioning agencies operating in Britain (FutureCity, or Modus Operandi who commission on the part of clients, Artangel who function as patrons for artists’ more ambitious projects and whose slogan is “Extraordinary art, Unexpected Places,” or ArtReach who do both) have grappled differently with the vested interests behind simply applying a percent for art policy, placemaking, or instrumentalising ephemeral installations and performances for footfall, either within the Art in empty spaces programme or in some of the country’s numerous POPs (business incentive districts) and the process of gentrification they often foster.