Artwork unveiled at Lockerbie Academy

From Spring Fling

A beautiful six metre long banner crafted by Lockerbie Academy students to celebrate their town was unveiled today (Monday).

It is made even more special by the addition of 52 individually designed coins, minted using The Stove Network's bicycle powered foundry, and hung from the bottom.

Image: Barry Young

The colourful artwork, which now takes pride of place in the school’s main entrance area, is the result of a joint initiative between Spring Fling, the academy, and Dumfries and Galloway Education Services. The project has been led by professional artists Morag Macpherson, Katie Anderson and Kirsty Turpie – a former pupil at the school. The aim was to give the students the chance to discover about life in the arts, learn new skills and contribute to a piece of artwork that will be enjoyed for decades to come. Morag, a renowned international textile designer based in Kirkcudbright, said: “We wanted to give the students a different perspective on art through getting to know working artists. We talked about our different practices and how they had developed. It gave them an insight into the lifestyle and career. “They really embraced the project and produced some very good work. Some of the young people were clearly very talented and clearly had a chance of getting into art school if that’s what they wanted to do.”

The banner is made up of dozens of 30cm squares, each with a repeating pattern based on line drawings the young people made of local buildings. They scanned the drawings, coloured them and created the patterns using specialised software.
At the same time Katie led the project to create a new currency for Lockerbie.
Katie said: “We wanted to know what they thought would be suitable for a currency for Lockerbie using designs based on their vision of their own town. And they came up with some really imaginative ideas.
“We also had a great day when I brought along the bicycle powered foundry which they could pedal to get it to the right temperature.”

Kirsty introduced students to the ancient art of paper collage. She said: “We used different types of paper to create collages and talked about different artists who the students might be inspired by. The results were really imaginative, I was very impressed.”
Each of the 32 collages has now been transferred onto a ceramic tile and will be displayed in the school. The project, which was funded by the Holywood Trust, gave the young people insights into life as a professional artist.

Image: Barry Young

Leah Black, Spring Fling Director, said: “This has been a great project which has produced a wonderful new piece of public art which the students and the school can be hugely proud of and which will hopefully be enjoyed for decades.
“The creative sector offers all sorts of fulfilling career opportunities for young people and is of growing importance to Scotland’s economy. This gave Lockerbie students a taste of what life as an artist could be like – and we hope it has fired their imaginations about what they can achieve in their own lives.”
The artists went into the school for five days in December and January and each worked with groups of pupils.

Carol Donnelly, art and design teacher at the school, said: “The artworks produced by our pupils are fantastic! Both the staff and the students have thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience!
“We would definitely recommend this type of collaboration to other schools as a way of enriching the classroom experience and accessing new skills, techniques and materials.”

The unveiling was attended by D&G’s Director of Education Colin Grant, who added: “I am delighted that students from Lockerbie Academy have had this exciting opportunity to work with professional artists, it will have no doubt added another dimension to their learning.
“What I am also pleased to see if a former pupil of the school coming back and sharing her knowledge and experiences with pupils and showing that you can succeed in life beyond school.”