Introductions: The project and I.

by Geraldine Heaney, 26 Mar 2011

The Project, current working title ‘A Direct Experience in Local Time’. Lead Artists Tatham and O’Sullivan will create new work to be sited in the Grounds of Fettes College in August 2011 during the Art Festival. As part of the project Tatham and O’Sullivan have commissioned other works by Artists, Chris Evans and Elizabeth Price.
A large part of the project is also the participation strand. The participation will be headed up by Debi Banerjee. Debi will plan and lead workshops. We are currently working out dates for workshops to be held in both Fettes College and Broughton High School and we’ll be involving the wider Inverleith Community through the summer as the project develops.

There’s been a lot of work put into this project already. Collective and Tatham and O’Sullivan have been developing the idea and securing the funding for quite some time. With this build up everyone’s enthusiasm for the project is clear. For Me, joining the project at this point it’s not hard to get excited about it. When I started in January I spent quite a bit of time researching the artists, the Inverleith area and the schools. There is such a broad scope for the project and a chance to really explore some interesting questions particularly about Art in the Public Realm.

I am Geraldine Heaney, as previously stated, I am the Administrative Assistant at Collective. As well as archiving, researching, finding IT solutions and helping serve Whiskey at Gallery events, I am also assisting with this adventurous new public art project. I’ve been helping to co-ordinate dates, taking minutes at meetings, I will be assisting in the participation workshops and I put together the Steering Group to keep a broad focus on the project.

The first steering group meeting held at the beginning of March was really well attended with a good cross section of people from Fettes College, Broughton High school and the wider Inverleith community. It was a great chance to inform everyone about the ideas behind the project and hear the groups’ thoughts and ideas about it.

I think everyone left the meeting with a lot of food for thought and a lot of action points to think on before the next meeting on the 30th of March.

I’m sure I’ll have more to update very soon…