Everything begins and ends with a story…
Some great comments in our Away Being visitor's book this week. After our musical launch on Sunday when the EYG Big Band played to 150 guests and a dog the pop-up exhibition continues in Gallery 1 at St Margaret's House until Saturday 10-4pm. More images of the launch of our Enterprise Music Scotland commission by Big Band Dad and photographer Mark Archibald http://bit.ly/1rXLE4k.
‘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 ...
Away Being at The Thrive Archive
Images are starting to arrive for Away Being, a pop up exhibition I am curating to celebrate a new music commission by The Thrive Archive. With help from Enterprise Music Scotland, Trad Awards nominee Mike Vass has composed a new concerto inspired by photographs taken by John Maher and Ian Paterson of abandoned croft houses on Lewis and Harris. The event on January 4th 2015 at Gallery 1 in St Margaret's House will be a community gatherin ...
Our Area in the First World War
The learning team at Callendar House put on a wonderful display at Bo'ness Hippodrome this week. It was great to meet up with the pupils of Laurieston Primary that we worked with earlier this year and to see theirmemory boxes on display. The six new boxes created in community workshops looked at life in Falkirk on the home front and some interesting stories came to light. Thank you to all at Falkirk Community Trust for the opportunity to work on ...
Leaving Home, Away Being and Coming Home
As curator at The Thrive Archive I am currently busy working on our pilot project Coming Home. The first phase of the project will conclude with a 'gatherin' in Edinburgh on January 4th to showcase our new music commission from Scottish composer and musician Mike Vass funded by Enterprise Music Scotland. Mike and I have been working with the amazing young musicians of Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin Big Band who recently supported the fabulous K...
Memorials and Mariners join hands across the sea
The memorials have now come together for 'All in Peril on the Sea' at Victoria Primary at our moving memorial service yesterday. Earlier this month as I worked with musician Jed Milroy and singer Lucy Metcalf to teach the P7 pupils to sing The Last Post and Silent Night in German for former pupils James L. Gordon and Garn Wood who died on HMS Monmouth on November 1st 1914 off the coast of Chile and to the crew of SMS Blucher the notorious East ...
“A lovely, heart-warming exhibition!”
I popped down to the Yorkshire Dales last week to pick up my tandem 'Daisy May'. My Daisy Daisy exhibition at the Dales Countryside Museum for the Tour de France had a wonderful summer and the visitor's comments are 100% positive. Here are a selection of the best quotes: Fabulous exhibition! We are on Honeymoon this week- cycling the Buttertubs etc. This exhibition has been the icing on the cake! - Sophie and Alan Anderson function ...
Falkirk Memory Boxes make their mark.
Our penultimate session with community volunteers on Falkirk Community Trust's 'Our Area in the First World War' project was really emotional. I have been working with the volunteers and the learning team throughout this golden autumn at beautiful Callendar House. The archive, the house and the grounds together with their wonderful exhibition programme have all been inspirational. The memory boxes will go on view at Bo'ness Hippodrome on 18th ...
