Late blog today as I run around trying to tie up loose ends before my holidays. I’m going to pause the blogs for the fortnight and start again on my 100 days on my return. However there should be semi-regular blogs from other Porty Central people in the mean time. I’ll do tomorrow as my last one before the pause.
My only real Portobello Central business was a very pleasant walk this morning along the prom with a local artist contact. She was a new contact for me and a very engaging conversation was had as the sun beamed down. The usual Porty effect was in full force with both of us bumping to people we know as we walked. Conversation was made and I hope that ideas will start to flow.
I am in awe of and inspired by the work being done in Dumfries by The Stove Network as an arts and community organisation (other inspiring organisations exist too). While I recognise we are a long way from what they do, they have something worth watching.
I’m also watching what comes out of the Culture Collective @culturecolsco with interest. Porty Central were part of Action Porty’s Culture Collective funding application to Creative Scotland which while it got through the first gateway, failed at the second. Be happy to share that content with any interested parties.
Certainly today we found ourselves discussing today why there are so many creatives in Portobello and yet so little community art work in Portobello (the wonderful @portyartwalk aside of course). Suspect funding has something to do with it but money is not the whole story. Something to work on.
Over and out.
Jennifer’s blog #31
I suspect it depends what you mean when you say ‘community art work’. If you mean publicly funded projects that are led by artists and involve the community in producing the work or publicly funded and commissioned work then maybe there is not as much as we might want, although the Art Walk is doing more of that every year. It is also running projects through the year, not just in the two weeks in September when the Art Walk is on. But if you mean the work of artists in the community who just get on and do it without waiting for funding there is plenty going on. There always seems to be guerrilla art on the beach or the prom, either made with found objects washed up on the shore or produced elsewhere and installed on the Prom. The ‘pencil sharpener project’ and the robot maker have both had lots of attention but other works pop up regularly. We have the Light Box mini gallery, the mural on the Dog and Cat home and all the low level stuff that goes on – the Winter Wanderland, The NHS rainbows in windows and Christmas wreaths on doors are just three examples. There are exhibitions on the Prom from the Science Festival and local photographers. Portobello is the canvas for many people’s work that appears on Instagram and other platforms as well as providing inspiration that leads to artistic creations that are displayed in local shops and cafes as well as during the Art Walk. I think there is a lot going on!