Local activists joined HND Contemporary Arts students from Edinburgh College Granton Campus and North Edinburgh Social Hostory Group members for an arts and activism workshop at North Edinburgh Arts earlier this week. Full report to follow, but see below for some images of the event:
12.12.12 was a particularly special date, and it’s a day in history that has been captured for ever thanks to the Muirhouse Centipede Project. Muirhouse folk were encouraged to get out and about with their cameras on that memorable date, capturing images on four seasonal themes. Reverend Linda Dunbar of Muirhouse St. Andrews’s explains what happens next:
“We received a good number of entries of photographs taken during the 24 hours of 12/12/12 that captured something of the Advent themes of Love, Joy, Hope and Peace. The submissions are going on display in the North Edinburgh Arts Centre from 26 February – 3 March, Muirhouse Millennium Centre 4-10 March, Muirhouse Library 11-17 March (to be confirmed) before ending up at Muirhouse St Andrew’s Parish Church on the 18 March where they will find a permanent home.
The official launch of the touring display will be on
Tuesday 26 February at 11am in North Edinburgh Arts Centre
with free coffee and scones on offer too! The winners of the children’s and adults’ entries will be on display – it would be great to see folk there.”
In another first for North Edinburgh, North Edinburgh Time Bank will be holding a Time Swap event at North Edinburgh Arts on Tuesday 26 February from 1 – 3pm. Time Bank Broker Julie Smith explains what it’s all about:
‘If you can spend a bit of time now and then helping someone in the community, you can earn a time credit. You can exchange that for help you need, or you can donate it to someone else who needs it.
If you’re quite handy, if you can help with housework, get shopping when someone’s not well, have a cup of tea and a chat with someone, give them a lift, teach a new skill like knitting or photography – or you want to learn how to work that new camera, or you need a hand painting, or fixing something – drop in.
Would you like to join a knitting group? Photography group? Singing? Timebank is a way of getting together and sharing interests and skills. Do you have something else you’d like to do? Tell other people and they can join in!
Times are tough and we all need somebody to lean on. Timebank is a way of meeting other people in your neighbourhood and helping each other when we need it. Phone me on 07807 002 591 if you need more info. Otherwise, see you on the 26th!’
Email: north.timebank@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk
Website: www.edinburghtimebank.org.uk
NEVER GIVE UP! – Looking to the future
North Edinburgh Arts is the venue for a practical workshop on arts and activism this Wednesday (20 February). Community Learning and Development worker Lynne McCabe tells more:
“I am writing to tell you about a practical workshop on arts and activism which will be taking place in North Edinburgh Arts Centre on Wednesday 20 February from 10 – 3.00 pm. The session has been organised by North Edinburgh Social History Group, CLD and art students from Telford (Edinburgh) College.
The social history group will kick off the morning session with a presentation of archive material which illustrates how the arts have been used to support local campaigns in the past. The students will then do a short presentation about the art work they created following a meeting with the group last year. We will then have a discussion about local issues and hopefully come up with some ideas of how to use the arts to get your group’s message across to a wider audience. This approach has been used very effectively over many years by countless local groups including the western general action group, the feet first chiropody campaign, the anti-water privatisation campaign, Pilton Environment Group and different generations of anti-dampness groups.
A free lunch will be provided for all participants at 12.00 and then we will get down to creating banners, posters, petitions, campaign logos – anything that you think would help to publicise local issues and campaigns. Some ideas already put forward by local activists include a huge banner or piece of art work about the bed room tax or something which could be used to highlight the issue of fuel poverty. We will be assisted in this process by the students and staff from the Contemporary Art Course at the College. The College will also provide us with a range of materials and equipment to use.
This is a great opportunity for people from different parts of North Edinburgh to come together to create a range of campaign materials which will help to generate a bit of publicity about local issues and campaigns.
Places are limited so please book your place in advance. Telephone North Edinburgh Arts on 315 2151 or email them on admin@northedinburgharts.co.uk. I hope that you are able to join us.”
A free personal development programme in Muirhouse is looking for new participants to start on 1st March.
If you are aged 16 – 24, unemployed, not in education or training and keen to learn new skills, meet new people and gain new experiences then please get in touch.
The Working It Out programme runs for 16 weeks and offers a range of activities and challenges that allow you to develop personal skills, volunteer in your own community and improve your job prospects. Participants are supported throughout the programme and for up to 12 months after. You can earn up to £40 in expenses every week and receive a free Ridacard.
Working it Out is run by Tomorrow’s People, based in North Edinburgh Arts Centre. If you are interested in making a positive change in your life, increasing your skills, or getting a job, then please contact Heather on 0798 966 Opportunities to make a new s9019 or e-mail hlaw@tomorrows-people.co.uk
Edinburgh College lecturers Alan Holligan and Jennie Temple preview an exhibition that opens in North Edinburgh Arts this evening:
LOCAL: An exhibition by HND Contemporary Art Practice students
Local is an exhibition by HND Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) students from the Granton Campus of the Edinburgh College. The artworks that can be seen in the exhibition at North Edinburgh Arts until 23 February are the culmination of a project which was instigated in September 2012 by ourselves, Alan Holligan & Jennie Temple, course lecturers on HND CAP, with priceless support from Lynn McCabe and the North Edinburgh Social History Group.
The Contemporary Art Practice course has been running very successfully since 2007. The course provides a range of excellent opportunities for students to develop a broad understanding of artistic practice. Alan and I had for some time been discussing how to develop a strong working connection between the CAP Course, the local community and surrounding areas of North Edinburgh. Beyond the college location, and the students who came to us who lived locally, we recognised that although we were part of a Community College (then Edinburgh’s Telford College: a stalwart of North Edinburgh for many years) we felt professional connection to our immediate surroundings could be stronger. We acknowledged that we bussed in and out of work every day, passing through the community in which our workplace was rooted, and also acknowledged that this was something we did not feel entirely comfortable about. As a result we started to discuss the possibility of a project for our HND 2nd year students that we hoped would, at the very least, begin a dialogue with some our neighbours.
We initially approached a couple of local groups to see if they would be interested in meeting with us, and subsequently our students. We couldn’t have anticipated the warmth with which we were greeted and quite quickly we were able to establish links and visits with (the amazing) North Edinburgh Social History Group and North Edinburgh Arts (with whom we already had some links). These visits were incredibly informative and allowed us to immediately understand the local area more fully, and in a way that we had never before: An area steeped in history; an area that had once been rich farmland; an area that had been home to a post-war camp; an area that the Duke of Buccleuch had happily called home, and much, much more. The students were instantly engaged and brought a range of rich contributions to the discussions: amongst the group of 11 students the majority was similar to us; they did not know the area very well. However, there is one current student (and we have had several prior) who grew up in the area and who has been able to give a very subjective insight into his relationship with North Edinburgh, alongside a few other students with friends and relatives in the area.
After these initial meetings and an amazing guided mini-bus tour of the area, generously facilitated by members of the Social History Group, we set the students the project. They were to spend two weeks responding to the local area and draw on the information that they had received from the experts. We would then present the resulting artworks to the Social History Group at the College.
At this point, we were all very excited, but could not have anticipated just how successful and stimulating the project would be. The students worked exceptionally hard from the moment the project started and responded in meaningful, thoughtful and sensitive ways. In retrospect, we realised that the students’ sense of responsibility to the Social History Group and the residents of North Edinburgh meant that they approached the project with a strong sense of integrity and a determination to make artworks that did not patronise or misrepresent the (sometimes sensitive and personal) issues that had been discussed within the meetings. The provision of a very unambiguous context for the artwork allowed the students to work in a way that was fundamentally different to normal project work: they had an audience that they did not know very well, and they were making work which they would themselves present to their audience.
As the initial stage of the project drew to a conclusion, we arranged a date for some members of the Social History Group to come and lunch with us and to view the works. The students were understandably nervous and worried: What if they didn’t like what we had done? Quickly it became clear that there was no need for nerves and all of the artworks were exceptionally well received and prompted lively, important and some emotional discussion amongst everyone present. The success and positive reception of the artworks went far, far beyond our expectations and we all knew immediately that we had to take the project to its next logical step: to exhibit the works, beyond the walls of the college and within the local community. And that is where we are now. The exhibition is an exciting opportunity for the staff and students to continue to engage with our local area and we are privileged to be taking part in what we hope to be the first stage of a long and prosperous collaboration between the students and staff of the HND Contemporary Art Practice course and the local residents and communities of North Edinburgh.
The exhibition will run until the 23 February at North Edinburgh Arts, Tuesday-Friday 10am-8pm, Sat 10am – 1pm, with a day of discussion and art-workshops to take place on Wednesday 20 February from 10am until 3pm.
Places are free but limited and booking is essential. Please book a place by emailing admin@northedinburgharts.co.uk or call 0131 315 2515.
Recruitment is currently taking place for HND Contemporary Art Practice Course at the Edinburgh College, Granton Campus. If you are interested please visit the College website for further information and online application: www.edinburghcollege.ac.uk
Alan Holligan and Jennie Temple
Course Lecturers, Contemporary Arts Practice
Our Storyelling course is especially popular with students interested in child development and speech development in children. All students will receive a certificate for both courses.
The timebank singers, now called North Edinburgh Sings Together, want to recruit more members.
We meet Thursday mornings, 10-12 at North Edinburgh Arts. Everyone is welcome, you don’t have to be a great singer. It’s a relaxed informal way to enjoy singing, and we positively welcome new people dropping in. You don’t have to make any commitment, come along any Thursday when you can. We’re also keen that speakers of other languages get involved as we would like to learn songs from around the world.
We are also looking for a pianist to accompany the group on Thursday mornings. We can pay them for their time! So any local musician with time on a Thursday morning, let us know!
Julie Smith, North Edinburgh Time Bank Broker
c/o North Edinburgh Arts 15a Pennywell Court
Mob: 07807002591
Website: www.edinburghtimebank.org.uk
North Edinburgh Sings Together – the choir formed by members of North Edinburgh Time Bank – will be rehearsing on Thursday mornings from 10am – 12 noon at North Edinburgh Arts and they need a pianist to accompany them.
Can you help, or perhaps you know someone who can? Get in touch!
There will be at least two local opportunities to celebrate the birth of the Bard next Friday (25th January).
The Prentice Centre in Granton Mains is the venue for an afternoon debate and discussion on Scotland’s future (something Burns himself cared passionately about) while in the evening at North Edinburgh Arts the Transition Group’s latest World Cafe event will have a definite tartan flavour with a menu packed with Scottish favourites.
See flyers below for more details:
