Best Bib and Tucker…
A lot can happen in Falkirk in a summer…not one but two royal visits. I am delighted to report that a First World War project that I worked on with Falkirk Community Trust last year was on the schedule of His Royal Highness Prince Edward. Thanks to the Learning Team at Callendar House we all had a lovely day and the former pupils of Laurieston Primary School did a great job at remembering the story of their ‘memory boxes’. It was good to ...
Poetry with a small ‘p’
Everybody's a poet these days, digital spray can in hand - busy on the twitter. So when National Poetry Day planning looms and you're organising an event what right do any of us have to pose as poets? (more…)
Transform and Tweet
My Reader in Residency with Falkirk Libraries has started and our theme for the year is Transformation. The joy of the Scottish Book Trust’s residency scheme is having a whole year to plan projects to tempt readers into Falkirk Libraries and create some memorable events outside too. I am working closely with the library staff to uncover the rich heritage of the area with the ever resourceful and happening Falkirk Community Trust. Maps, ...
Gretna 100 – Seven of the 7th
A busy time this week installing the community exhibition at Out of The Blue Drill Hall. I am really proud of the creative writing that the 7 member strong research group have produced. I gave a series of workshops on telling stories simply and looking at exhibition design to illustrate core themes. The volunteer research team then rose to the challenge and have produced a moving exhibition. The Gretna 100 project opens at The Drill Hall on ...
Women in Peace and War
A new exhibition opened at the Frauen Museum in Bonn in April and I was delighted to have this art work accepted. The laser etched panels show images of women munition workers in Falkirk during the First World War with the lines of Lee's poem Every Bullet has a Billet below each photograph. The thin beech panels are laced together with corset laces. Women could not wear any metal in case of explosion so their constricting 'stays' had to go... ...
Out Of The Blue
I have been working with two wonderful organisations Citizen Curator and Out Of The Blue arts centre to curate a community response to the Gretna Rail Disaster for their Gretna 100 project funded by HLF. 7 researchers have chosen 7 men of the 1/7th Battalion Royal Scots. The men marched out of the Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street on May 1st 1915. They were off to advanced training in Falkirk. Three weeks later they left Lambert Station to travel to ...
Inspiration and a new project
Stories run through your work like a red thread. An interesting comment this week from Dutch artist Guda Koster whose work has long inspired me. Meanwhile storyteller Bea Fergusen promises me a story of Stone Soup on her return from her travels. As I take down the Away Being exhibition one door closes and another opens. My next project as curator of The Thrive Archive is Hearth Heart Earth which will link passion, provision and food ...
‘It made me cry, and made me sick…homesick!’
'It made me cry!' was one of the lovely written in our comments book yesterday, 'A fantastic way to dispel the post Chritsmas lethargy!' read another. Away Being, my latest exhibition as curator of The Thrive Archive saw the launch of a new Scottish concerto yesterday played beautifully by the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin Big Band to over 150 people. A mixture of installation, digital and textile art complemented the haunting images of aba...
Chasing my tail?
Children from Abbeyhill Primary School visited me in Gallery 1 at Edinburgh Palette this week to make their installation artwork about the evacuation of St Kilda. Seeking inspiration I dug out a story I wrote following a trip I made to the island as a recipient of The Margaret Woodward Costume Award in 1982. We used a simple stencil borrowed from the Awesome Folk at St Margaret's House. The P4 children were fantastic and the resulting art work ...
Hearth Heart Earth
I love it when serendipity knocks and idea's flow- or is it pulse theory? In Scotland 2015 is The Year of Food and Drink. Hearth Heart Earth was written by one of our community artists on our envelope art wall and today a visitor to the Away Being exhibition spotted these two wee refugees made of vintage textiles that I created for the 2012 Liverpool Biennial. My visitor explained that the text read 'your hearth is golds'-worth'. function ...
