Off the Wall Community Art Project

After the opening of our new community hall in August a discussion between two residents regarding the huge wall space in the hall lobby occurred: one said that it required a picture, the other, a local artist, said that it was an ideal opportunity for a community art project and so the seed of an idea was set.

A proposal was put forward to Boat of Garten Community Company for a series of artist led workshops that would result in the introduction of a wall sculpture that reflected Boat of Garten, the place and the people in 2007 that would be displayed in the community hall. As 2007 was Highland 2007, Year of Culture an application was made to Highland Council for funding for the project, with assistance from Boat of Garten Community Company, which was duly approved. On Saturday 15th September the first workshop took place: One of the main ideas of the workshops were that they were stand-alone, i.e.That it was not necessary for anyone to have to attend all workshops in order to participate, anyone could attend either one or all of the workshops and contribute to the finished piece of work.

Photographic Workshop:

15th September 2007

After a short introduction and instruction presentation and a check that everyone’s cameras were set up correctly;

the group went out and about the village with the remit that they should take photos of what they found interesting or felt was an important element of the village.

The weather was dreadful but it didn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm! It wasn’t long before the first photos were being downloaded onto laptop computers back at the hall and, after a bit of lunch and a warming cup of tea, everyone went out again, sometimes to retake an image from the morning, or to explore the village further.

Although there was a request that each participant restrict themselves to restrict themselves about 30 images, at the end of the day over 2000 images had been downloaded!

Modelling Workshop

23rd & 24th September 2007

The images taken during the photographic workshop were used as the source material for this two-day workshop. The editing process of the images highlighted which areas of the village were thought important by the number of times the same object or item appeared.

After a short introduction and demonstration of what wall sculpture consists of and how to create it, the participants chose which images they wanted to work on. The images had been converted to black and white ready to be translated from a 2D image to a 3D piece of sculpture. Some participants that had not attended the previous workshop managed to create new pieces as well.

 

Painting & Finishing Workshop:

13th October 2007

The final workshop concentrated on the finishing off of the pieces created during the modelling workshop.

 

 

 

 

Construction:

Oct to Dec 2007

Now that the elements of the wall sculpture had been created, it was up to the artist leading the project to design a framework that incorporated all of them into a single piece of wall sculpture

 

Once the framework had been constructed the brackets that would hold the piece on the wall were bolted into place, then the creation of the finished piece could begin.Aluminium bars were bolted together to create the sub-frame, onto which all of the pieces would be attached; polished Aluminium rod formed the elements of the design that depicts the background hills that surround the village and the river Spey.

 

Unveiling ceremony:

29^th December 2007

Finally! The day of the unveiling

All of the “Budding Artists” that attended the workshops were invited to bring along friends and family to see the results of their hard work. The unveiling was advertised as part of the Boat of Garten Village Winter Festival programme and, encouragingly, a large number of residents and visitors attended the event.

The artist that led the project, Christine Morrison, welcomed everyone to the event and gave a brief introduction to the origins of the project before asking the two youngest participants of the workshops to assist her in the unveiling. An additional part of the evening was a display of some of the photographs from the first workshop that, although not suitable for the translation part of the project, were felt to be of considerable merit and worthy of being displayed.

Afterwards, Christine said” This project has been enormous fun and a great success due to the enthusiasm and commitment given by all of those that attended the workshops. I believe that Art should be accessible to all, whatever their age or ability. This project has given all of those that attended the pleasure of being involved in the creation of a piece of art that is on display not only to their community but to all that visit the community hall. During the workshops we had a seven-year-old working alongside a sixty-year-old member of the community, where else does that happen?. This has been a true community art project, not a piece of art that an artist has created for a community, but a piece of art created BY the community with the assistance of an artist, I think that gives the project a special edge; a sense of ownership by all that took part and a sense of pride for their friends, family and community. Huge thanks have to go to the Boat of Garten Community Company and to the Highland Council as, without their support, this project would never have happened”