Good news for the region from the Burrell Gallery in Glasgow this afternoon, where the winners of the 2011 Saltire Society Award were announced.
First out of the hat was the Stranraer Castle Square project which won the big prize, the
Saltire Award for Art in Architecture.
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| Local photographer David Rowley's spectacular 360 panorama of the new Castle Square is here |
Artists Matt Baker and David Ralston from D&G with architects Smith Scott Mullan, project
architect Rachel Simmonds leapt on to the stage to accept their awards, praise the Lord
and of course thank their agents and peers for the recognition of their fine work.
Interestingly of the four commended projects in the Art for Architecture category, three
of the four nominees are from Dumfries and Galloway. In addition to the
Stranraer project, Linda Mallett of Kirkcudbright was lead artist on the
commended West Centre, Drumchapel.
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| Tim Taylor - niche artwork- West Centre |
John Crosby of Auchencairn was commended for his seating in Lady's Walk, Kilmarnock.
So after a rather fraught week, the arts in D&G are still alive and kicking!
Congratulations to all nominees and our winners.
Posted by MMac
Fantastic news....this is such a positive post. I feel this region has many amazing creative talented professionals that don't always shout about it but achieve great things. Congratulations to everyone!
ReplyDeleteAmanda x
Nice one congrats Matt
ReplyDeleteWell done Matt love the work at Castle Square, it has improved that part of Stranraer greatly and has drawn local people into using their town square as a meeting place once again.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Matt. It is a well deserved award and you and David must be delighted. I'm pretty chuffed to be able to claim one of my poems is part of an award-winning project! Well done, too, to Linda Mallett and John Crosby.
ReplyDeleteFantastic news. Castle Square, Stranraer!
ReplyDeleteAnother poem in huge letters that cannot be read as it is on top of a wall that cannot be seen, wins through! Finlay, who was the master of such methods, would at least written the words along the side of the wall! Anyway, lets shout from the rooftops as it is the only place anyone might see it! And the award goes to…total waste of money.
My interest was peaked by the mention of Ian Hamilton Finlay and a turn to my bookshelf proved my hunch correct, the cover of the classic edition of Little Sparta shows the work 'The Present Order is the Disorder of the Future' - carved on the TOP face of flat slabs. In fact the more you look the more you will find inscriptions on flat horizontal stones eg the classic Scots 'tabletop' gravestone beloved of geologist/artist Hugh Miller.
ReplyDeletePendantry aside, I would like to contribute that I have smiled to watch children in Stranraer running along the wall that bears the 1 foot high letters of Mary Smith's powerful poem 'Ocean' and taken great pleasure form seeing the kids playing Het in the inviting round spaces of the circular artwork in Castle Square. This seems to me a good example of art quietly adding real value to a public space.
And, if another hunch is correct, all for less than the price of a cup of tea at the excellent Petruccis' cafe to each member of the town's population!
Actually I witnessed a small child falling off Rab Wilson's poem at the foot of the Vennel in Dumfries and severely skinning his knee. This is a clear indication of the danger of manifestations of the creative ego in hitherto uncluttered public spaces.
ReplyDeleteGood Lord, thankfully the poem is at the bottom of the Vennel rather than the top, imagine the damage done to the poor mites knees had they tumbled through the port, past the various charity shops and out in to the bus lane. Arts dangerous, don't fuck with it kiddies.
ReplyDelete