Muirhouse – Page 9 – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

More funding for local regeneration

Additional support totalling £848,123 is being provided from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) for a trio of flagship regeneration projects in the city.

The Leith Community Croft, Macmillan Hub and West Shore Studios are being delivered by the City of Edinburgh Council in partnership with three keystone charities.

The Leith Community Croft project is transforming a former tennis pavilion at Leith Links into a new multifunctional community hub run by the environmental charity Earth in Common.

It will be used for events, training, and promoting local food production and will receive £159,123 of the additional funding.

The Macmillan Hub in Pennywell will feature a library, an early years centre, affordable housing, and a new enterprise, workshop, learning and creative studio space to be run by the local charity North Edinburgh Arts.

The Hub forms part of the wider strategic regeneration of Pennywell-Muirhouse and will receive £500,000 of the additional funding, to be used to help deliver the creative space.

Forming part of the Council’s sustainable regeneration of Granton Waterfront, West Shore Studios will transform a disused 1970s former industrial unit at 20 West Shore Road into a vibrant new creative and community hub that will be operated by the charity Edinburgh Palette.

The project will deliver workspaces for artists and micro-businesses along with a new home for the popular Pitt Street Food Market. The project will receive £189,000 of the additional funding towards the renewal of doors and windows along with essential utilities work.

Welcoming the news, Depute Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council Mandy Watt said: “This funding is very welcome as these projects will play a key role in the ongoing regeneration and enhancement of Granton Waterfront, Pennywell, and Leith in north Edinburgh.

“The funding will help the projects in their goals to bring new jobs, training courses, and recreation opportunities to the communities of all three areas. I look forward to visiting these projects in future to see how they are benefitting local people in the years to come.”

Community Wealth Minister Tom Arthur said: “I congratulate these projects on making progress and supporting jobs, investment and wider opportunities. Regeneration of Scotland’s more disadvantaged communities is a key Scottish Government priority to help transform the economy.

“This extra Scottish Government funding will help deliver fairer and more prosperous local districts.”

Muirhouse Youth Development Group to celebrate 25th birthday in style

MYDG turns 25 years old and we want to celebrate with the community!

Wednesday 29th March 2023 from 6 – 8pm at Muirhouse Millennium Centre

Everyone is welcome to come along, share stories of MYDG, look at old pictures and videos, have food and celebrate.

Let us know if you are able to make it along and it would be great to see young people and their families, staff and volunteers past and present and anyone that has contributed to making MYDG what it is today

Muirhouse Meet & Greet Fete today

HELP SHAPE PLANS FOR FIDRA COURT COMMUNITY GARDEN

Muirhouse Neighbourhood Garden: Meet & Greet Fete

SATURDAY 4 MARCH from 11am – 2pm at FIDRA KITCHEN

Save Muirhouse Millennium Centre

Responding to reports that the Muirhouse Millennium Centre was holding a ‘Save Our Centre’ public meeting last night, Thursday 26^th January, due to fears that they are at risk of closure, Foysol Choudhury MSP said: “The Muirhouse Millennium Centre is sadly at risk of becoming another community loved facility threatened with closure.

“Citizens up and down Scotland depend on these community facilities, especially during the cost-of-living crisis where warm banks and food hubs have become a lifeline for many households.

“When local authorities aren’t given adequate funding, it is not just the community centres who miss out. It is the people who themselves are dependent on these community centre services who are hit the hardest, especially in areas of high deprivation.

“Over the past weeks, I have attempted to ask questions in the Scottish Parliament about the Centre being at risk and potential solutions. Unfortunately, my questions have not been chosen but I will continue to try and raise awareness of this matter wherever possible.

“It is time for the Scottish Government to wake up and listen to the effect that their funding cuts are having on local services and people. They have starved Scotland’s councils of funding for years and unfortunately they show no sign of stopping.

“Unless the Scottish Government increases funding to local authorities, community, culture, and sport groups will not have the necessary funds to support essential community centres such as the Muirhouse Millennium Centre. 

“I will continue to support our essential community groups and will be paying close attention to the outcome of the public meeting on Thursday. Enough is enough, action is needed now before the Scottish Government strips away all of our essential community lifelines.”

Muirhouse Millennium Centre SoS

PUBLIC MEETING – THURSDAY 26 JANUARY at 6pm

Muirhouse Youth Development Group: New programme starts next week

Our new programme for 2023 starting 9th January.

We have included some later nights into sessions and changed some of the days for sessions, so please look out for the sessions you’d like to come to.

We hope to see you along at sessions next week.

Muirhouse Housing Association to hold Christmas event at the Millenium Centre tomorrow

THURSDAY 1st DECEMBER from 4 – 6.30pm

No Ruined Stone: Paul Duke’s Muirhouse exhibition opens tomorrow

Paul Duke: No Ruined Stone
26 November 2022 – 19 February 2023
City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DE
Free Admission

This November, the City Art Centre opens a new exhibition of street photography by the artist Paul Duke depicting contemporary life in the Muirhouse area of Edinburgh.

Paul Duke: No Ruined Stone features 38 large-scale black and white photographs documenting the built environment and residents of Muirhouse. It is accompanied by a short film by Julian Ward, in which Paul Duke talks about his work and the experience of creating the series.

This is the first time No Ruined Stone has been displayed as a full-scale exhibition, bringing the photographs back to the artist’s home city.

Paul Duke grew up in Muirhouse, in the north of Edinburgh, between the mid-1960s and early 1980s. He attended the local Craigroyston High School, where his teachers inspired him to consider art as a possible future career. Drawn to photography, he enrolled at Napier College (now Edinburgh Napier University), before gaining a place to study at the Royal College of Art in London. From here, he established himself as a lens-based artist.

In 2015 Duke returned to Muirhouse to develop No Ruined Stone. This series was conceived as the second part of a photographic trilogy by Duke which examines the social climate in modern-day Scotland. It takes its name from the poetry of the Scots writer Hugh MacDiarmid. For No Ruined Stone, the artist spent time meeting local people and talking with them; reconnecting with his roots and exploring how the Muirhouse community had changed since his own upbringing there.

The exhibition at the City Art Centre presents a selection of 38 photographs from No Ruined Stone. It features views of homes and other architectural structures, surrounded by elements of the natural world. Portraits of local residents punctuate the otherwise unpopulated setting, giving a sense of the community’s identity – something that is too often misrepresented in popular culture and elsewhere.

Duke’s understated yet powerful images depict Muirhouse at a time of significant urban regeneration and social flux. While raising issues around social inequality and poverty, No Ruined Stone is underpinned by a message of human resilience, strength of character, and ultimately, hope.

Paul Duke said: “When I started work on No Ruined Stone in 2015, my greatest wish was to create a narrative that gave voice to the residents of Muirhouse – to challenge misrepresentation by portraying the community and local environment with honesty, fairness and dignity.

“I wanted to offer personal insight and in doing so, address pressing questions around social injustice. With millions of people up and down the land dealing with the cost of living crisis, I believe that these photographs have taken on new meaning and are now more relevant than ever.

Curator Dr Helen Scott said: It’s been a real privilege to work with Paul Duke on bringing this exhibition to the City Art Centre.

“No Ruined Stone is an important body of work that is both hard-hitting and reflective, socially-engaged and highly personal. There is heart and truth in these photographs, and the images linger with you long after you’ve seen them.

Councillor Val Walker, Convener of Culture and Communities, said: “We are delighted to present Edinburgh’s own Paul Duke: No Ruined Stone at the City Art Centre.

“His wonderful photographs will be on display for the first time as a full-scale exhibition and I’m sure visitors will be captivated by the series on contemporary life in the Muirhouse area of the Capital and the changes in the community.

“The aim of our City Art Centre is to champion historic and contemporary Scottish visual and applied arts, so I’m delighted that we can display Paul’s work in his home city.”

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Paul Duke: No Ruined Stone (Hartmann Books, 2018).

Paul Duke: No Ruined Stone opens on Saturday 26 November 2022, and runs until 19 February 2023. Admission is free.