Glenrothes

by Ruth Barker, 14 Mar 2011

Hello,

Did anyone else see this article from The Courier, describing recent goings-on in Glenrothes?

Those of you who know your public art history will recall that Glenrothes is notable for being hugely forward thinking in its employment of a ‘town artist’ in 1968, with a job description that David Harding (who held the post from 1968 – 1978) remembers as stating “that the artist would, ‘contribute to the external built environment of the town’, but it also said that the artist would be called upon for other things such as graphic design (probably a concession to the doubters).” ¹

A huge amount of work was commissioned in Glenrothes as a result of this forward thinking scheme, and even though much of it now looks fairly dated, articles like that in the Courier suggest that local residents are still very attached to much of the work. I sent the article to David as I thought he’d be interested in the continuing legacy of those early projects. He replied, saying:

“I did know things were happening in Glenrothes and so it was interesting to read that even the Dundee paper was running something. None of the works mentioned were ones that I did, however I did give an interview to the local paper² saying that most of the works in the town were deep in housing neighbourhoods and this policy of removing them to parks etc diminished the housing areas (or words to that effect).

“One work I did is threatened by a massive Sainsbury development in the town centre and Historic Scotland are making moves to list it. The MSP mentioned has raised the whole issue in Parliament. The developers are wanting to relocate it so we’ll see.”

So as we think about the nature of Planning, sometimes it’s useful to consider the long view. And to think about the various perspectives involved: relocating this work clearly has a different meaning to the local community who have taken ownership over it, that it may to Fife Council’s Area Services manager, who says that the intention is to increase the work’s ‘prominence’.

Prominence to whom? We may ask, because the relocation of an artwork from a residential setting to a roundabout clearly changes the way that we may encounter it.
More people will see the work, but for a shorter amount of time.
Fewer people may touch the work, stroke it, sit on it or vandalise it.
How do we value each of these interactions, and why? The move will clearly make the work more prominent to some people, and less prominent to others. The direction of this shift is from a small number of people having a long-term and intimate experience of the work; towards a large number of people having a short-term and fleeting experience of the same piece. In terms of planning, this is an important distinction. The way that we choose location one over the other may speak volumes about our priorities, and our assumptions.

Comments welcome!

More later,

R.

¹ http://www.davidharding.net/article12/index.php

² http://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/local-headlines/glenrothes_town_art_row_rumbles_on_1_1501648