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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
For All in Peril
I have had the pleasure of working with the budding artists in Primary 7 at Victoria Primary School this week on The Last Post project to make a fitting memorial for their community event on 11th November. Together with musician Jed Milroy and singer Lucy Metcalf we have taught the children and the Newhaven Community Choir to sing The Last Post for former pupils James L. Gordon and Garn Wood who died serving on the HMS Monmouth on November 1st ...
Coming Home and The Thrive Archive
The Coming Home project is a music commission funded by Enterprise Music Scotland. This pilot project for The Thrive Archive is nearing its mid point. We have had two amazing sessions at Summerhall with Mike Vass and Roxana Vilk who are working with the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin Big Band to create a collaborative piece of music inspired by the photographic exhibition Leaving Home by Ian Paterson and John Maher and the 3 questions that we have ...
Community project in Falkirk
I have had the pleasure of working with a fantastic group of volunteers at Callendar House with Falkirk Community Trust's learning team over the past few weeks. Their 'Our Area in the First World War' project is funded by HLF and is an extension of the award winning work we did with Laurieston Primary earlier in the year. The groups' memory boxes will be on display at the wonderful Bo'ness Hippodrome on November 18th before touring schools and ...
The Last Post Project in Newhaven
I am excited to be taking part in The Last Post Project in my local community. Victoria Primary School in Newhaven has a fascinating story to tell about their part in The First World War and with the help of local historians and the Newhaven Community Choir we will be singing the Last Post on November 11th for former pupils James Gordon - aged 17- and Garn Wood - aged 20- who lost their lives in November 1914 on HMS Monmouth in the Battle of ...