Organised by Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow and Lillie Art Gallery, Milngavie FUTUREPROOF 15 is a series of exhibitions showcasing new talent from Scotland’s photography and fine art degree courses.

The exhibition intends to capture the variety within the medium of photography embraced by emerging artists. The title ‘FUTUREPROOF’ is a pun on the definition of futureproofing – of finding ways of not becoming obsolete in the future, and also of the subtle ways of anticipating future developments in the field, of seizing opportunities, as well as the actual and intangible influences in ideas that feed the arts of photography. This cross-section of work by young artists is a compelling insight into our place within the contemporary world, with personal stories, theatrical constructions, documentary observations on the social and the psychological, the ordinary and the dramatic, and vice versa. All this, executed through the innate and the practical application of photographic media.

Mark Osborne

Calum Douglas

FUTUREPROOF 15 artists are:

Peacock Visual Arts:
Albert Elm | Peter Holliday | Sophie Mae Howie | Alan Knox | Mark Osborne | Lucie Rachel | Bobby Sinclair | Sebastian Mary Tay | Joletta Thorburn

Lillie Art Gallery:
Miriam Chefrad | Will Clark | Calum Douglas | Janice Fleming | Aidan Ford | Iga Gozdowska | Mairead Keating | Rebecca Moffat | Gregor Shmatz | Eve Stotesbury | Lynne Strachan | Joletta Thorburn | Rachel Townsend

Peter Holliday

Bobby Sinclair

Mairead Keating

Exhibitions run: Peacock Visual Arts (Aberdeen) 22 August – 3 October and Lillie Art Gallery (Milngavie) 22 August – 16 September.

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

Hullo, my name is Alex Holroyd. Based in Aberdeen, Scotland, I’m a photographer and a co-conspirator in the affairs of Offset 57, a local creative collective. I have a fondness for houseplants, a big love for music and I’m rarely seen without facial hair. You can find my photography here. This is a wee tour of some of the creative scene of Aberdeen.

Aberdeen is a funny place. I wasn’t born here, but grew up here in one of its suburbs. It’s a place that’s known primarily for its striking granite buildings and its oil wealth. It’s also a place that many have found easy to bemoan, myself included, but after a time away, I’m beginning to find more to it than I previously appreciated. It is pretty corporate on the one hand as a result of it being the energy capital of Europe, but there’s also a crowd of creative folks making things of all types and existing outside the mainstream, both old and young. This is the side of Aberdeen that I feel most at home in. I’ll take you through a few of my favourite things:

The Belmont Filmhouse (formerly of the Picturehouses chain) is Aberdeen’s local indie cinema, and is the go-to place to see quality, interesting films. Its recent change to being part of the Filmhouse family is thankfully expected to increase the variety of foreign and independent film on offer. They often put on special screenings of films you may not have seen on the big screen before; a place where you can watch Predator or Home Alone with a beer is a good’un in my book. Downstairs you have The Bar Below, host to the E.A.R.L. (of sandwich) guys, who make one of the best chilli bowls in the ‘deen. You’ll often find artwork down here too, and it’s just a nice place to kick back before or after a film. A game of scrabble here never goes amiss.

Further down the street from the Belmont, you’ll find a wee bar called The Tippling House. Head down the stairs and you’ll find yourself in Aberdeen’s best cocktail bar (in my opinion anyway). Headed up by Adrian Gomes, the bar has won a stack of awards for its food, its cocktails, and its staff’s skills. The food is taken care of by Eat Beetroot, culinary mavericks in their own right. The Tippling house’s style has been much emulated, but not bested. My personal recommendation has to be one of their white Russians. As we’d say here, affa fine.

Mike and Katie’s mirror mural for Flagship 57 #1

Prints from local artists up on the wall at Brewdog Aberdeen as part of Flagship 57 #1

Another bar to mention is BrewDog. The brand probably doesn’t need much of an introduction, but the Aberdeen bar is its Flagship. BrewDog is famous for its unconventional approach to beer and business, and the Aberdeen bar has been a welcome home for creatives. Most recently, they’ve teamed up with a local creative collective that I’m involved with called Offset 57 to launch Flagship 57. This is a monthly event involving live illustration, live music, a pop-up stall with work from local creatives, and prints for sale by students and former graduates of the city’s art school and college that remain in the bar over the course of the month. They’ve also got a sister venue called Musa near Union Square, a restaurant, gallery space and live music venue. The Monday open mic night hosted by Pete is a good mellow way to enjoy an evening, with a decent lineup of regulars, some good, some odd…

We’re lucky enough to have a few collectives making work here. Local favourites are a duo that go by the name of WLDWLVS. Neil and Stu are a pair of designers and illustrators and all round rad dudes who have carved a pretty big following for their work, and rightly so. Their tees, hoodies and beanies have featured some really nice designs, with collaborations with local artists like Stu Allan and others further afield like Glasgow based Conzo Throb. They’ve also partnered with BrewDog recently for their Glasgow Beer Geek Brunch event, and started the #seeninthedeen stream that many folk now contribute to on twitter and instagram.

Real Nice Collective and more specifically, the Hell Yeah crew have recently reared their heads. Katie, Mike, Lee and Neil are freelance illustrators who collaborate on illustration installations and have worked with us at Offset 57 twice and put on some really impressive shows. Katie and Mike recently killed it on the mirror illustrations at BrewDog at the Flagship 57 event. Really looking forward to seeing what they’re going to do next.

Back to Belmont street we go to visit 17, the not so new home of the Arts and Culture side of the Council support but fairly new home of Make Aberdeen, a digital fabrication studio delivered by Peacock Visual Arts. Armed with all sorts of machinery including laser cutters, CNC routers and a fleet of macs, creative possibilities here abound (like engraving Brian Blessed punching a bear onto the back of your phone). 17 had a super shaky start but is beginning to realise its place in the cultural map of the city. They’re currently playing host to the ‘In the shadow of the breast’ exhibition curated by the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. This is a Year of Natural Scotland project inspired by Bennachie, featuring film, a sound installation, paintings and prints. Here’s to 17 going from strength to strength.

Peacock Visual Arts remains a central connecting point for creatives in the city. They’re the leading contemporary arts organisation in Aberdeen; current exhibitions include Marc Wilson’s photography work ‘The Last Stand’, and the annual pre-degree show exhibition from local Gray’s School of Art printmaking students. Aside from exhibitions and events, PVA are also home of screen printing studios that artists can use as well as facilities for lithography, etching, a darkroom, and more. Over the years they’ve hosted both big name artists and provided a platform for local artists to showcase their work. They unfortunately lost out in the Union Terrace Gardens debacle, but I’ll not get into that otherwise I’ll get angry, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…

The music scene in Aberdeen is pretty varied. The yearly jazz festival is a big draw and pulls in several music venues around the city, including jazz scene staple The Blue Lamp, a stone’s throw from BrewDog. The recently held Big Beach Ball  hosted acts as varied as Fatherson and Krystal Klear in the lineup alongside pop up shops and food market. Nice.

Right next door to The Blue Lamp, you’ll find the Candle Close Gallery, housed in part of Soapy Ogston’s Victorian soap factory. You’ll find reclaimed fixtures from notable Aberdeen buildings as the old Frederick Street School and the Astoria Cinema House here alongside bespoke furniture, jewellery and gifts. I buy my nag champa from there.

Old image, you get the idea though.

One wee place that many don’t know about is a shop in the west end called Peltoniemi Concept Store. I’ve had the pleasure of working with owner Tytti on a few projects. Her shop showcases high end design and is always well curated, stocking items Tytti has hand picked from London, Paris, Milan and further afield. As she’s a Finn, there are of course a few Moomin related items in there too. Also a cracking interior designer, she’s responsible for the sophisticated design of the Adelphi Kitchen, a new restaurant in the Adelphi area of the city, off the main line of Union street.

Coffee wise, favourites are Contour Café on the green and Food Story on Thistle Street. Both of these places do events outside the normal realm of a coffeehouse. Contour has hosted clothes swap nights, and Food Story has hosted whiskey tasting evenings. Both also do excellent food.

Snow, skate and BMX shop Boarderline is always worth a visit. The staff are all pretty gnarly riders of their chosen board/wheels, and both Katie and Mike are also part of the Hell Yeah crew mentioned earlier. Skate culture has always been tied to the arts and visual side of things, so it’s no surprise that this place is pretty well connected to the indie scene in the ‘deen. They’ve played host to screenings of local skate films, the latest of which being ‘Ah Dinna Ken’, screened in local music venue The Lemon Tree.

Dunes at Balmedie

I haven’t even mentioned the Shire yet. Aberdeen is nicely situated not only on the coast (shame about Trump’s oafish installation), but right by an affa bonny bit of country. There are hills and green things aplenty the further west/north/northwest that you go, along with more creative potential too. Check out the Woodend Barn if you’re out Banchory way, and while you’re at it, hit the Birdhouse Cafe for a giant flat white (they mistakenly were given big cups instead of regular flat white ones, and so just make their flat whites bigger. What a shame.) The dunes at Newburgh are also worth a trek.

More: Website | Flickr | Twitter

See more of Alex’s work in this Central Station showcase.

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where our members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

This week Aberdeen city centre will be dazzled by a spectacular array of light installations, exhibitions and events for all to enjoy.

Aberdeen City Centre will be illuminated by a trail of light works and projections – Reclaim The Night promenade, led by Aberdeen City Council’s Creative Learning Team, will bring a touch of technicolour to the City’s backstreets and alleyways and The Light Garden will see a thousand sparkling flowers planted in Union Terrace Gardens.

Peacock Visual Arts will also present new interior light works by one of the festival artists, Adam Barker-Mill, in just-noticeable differences Part 2 between 7 February and 22 March 2014. The exhibition will open on Thursday 6 February, 7 – 9pm.

SPECTRA, Aberdeen’s first ever Festival of Light, is set to dazzle the city with a spectacular array of light installations, exhibitions and events.

SPECTRA artists:
Adam Barker-Mill
Chris Bird
Jim Buckley
Jim Ewen
Torsten Lauschmann
Eilidh McCormick
Jitka Zabkova
Chevalvert
2Roqs
Polygraphic
Splank

For more information about The Light Garden, Reclaim The Night, light projections and installations, click here.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

This is the first collaborative programme developed by the Scottish Print Network (SPN), a partnership between Dundee Contemporary Arts, Edinburgh Printmakers, Glasgow Print Studio, Highland Print Studio, Inverness and Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen.

The SPN has invited 10 artists from Scotland and 10 from Commonwealth countries to undertake research residencies during 2013 and 2014. Artists from Scotland are travelling to Antigua, Canada, India, Malawi and New Zealand; artists from Australia, Canada, India and Pakistan will be on residency in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

Claire Barclay at the Banff centre

The participating artists from Scotland are:
Claire Barclay, Christine Borland, Michael Fullerton, Louise Hopkins, Jim Lambie, Scott Myles, Elizabeth Ogilvie, Robert Orchardson, Carol Rhodes, David Shrigley.

The artists from Australia, Canada, India and Pakistan are:
Sarnath Banerjee, Fahd Burki, Julia Dault, Rohini Devasher, Geoffrey Farmer, Emily Floyd, Janice Kerbel, David Noonan, Seher Shah, Shahzia Sikander.

A number of the Scottish artists have completed their residencies: Claire Barclay spent one month working at the Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada; Jim Lambie travelled to the Caribbean island of Antigua; Michael Fullerton and David Shrigley both travelled to Auckland, New Zealand.

Sarnath Banerjee at Highland Print Studio

To date, Sarnath Banerjee and Emily Floyd have travelled to Scotland to work with Highland Print Studio and DCA Print Studio respectively (Emily’s work is also included in the current DCA exhibition ‘There will be new rules next week’). The SPN looks forward to welcoming the other international artists to Scotland. Many of these artists will be working and exhibiting in Scotland for the first time.

Each artist is working with one of the five print studios on the development of ambitious and innovative new work in print, taking full advantage of the excellent range of resources, equipment and expertise available through each organisation.

The SPN will also organise a series of exhibitions, events and workshops to run in parallel with the residencies during 2013 and 2014. This will include a two-person exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers with Louise Hopkins and Carol Rhodes (in June and July 2014) and a solo exhibition of work by Michael Fullerton at Glasgow Print Studio (in July 2014). The programme will culminate with an exhibition of new work by the artists at Glasgow Print Studio during the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Below another sky is part of Creative Futures, a Creative Scotland talent development programme which aims to promote the professional development, capabilities, connectivity and ambitions of Scotland’s practitioners and organisations.

For further information on the artists, their residencies and the work being produced, please visit: www.belowanothersky.org.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

My first job after the free-lance joys of a paper round was, at weekends and school holidays, as a store boy for the West of Scotland grocers J Curley’s. Old school, butter came in hundredweight wooden barrels that you had to chop open with an axe. The huge slippery blocks had to be carried up the counter, dodging the girls serving, to the marble slab by the window where, with two wooden paddles, a more skilled operative turned yellow chunks into neat half-pound rectangles. The pay was two bob an hour, the incentive the girls.

As a student, there were summer jobs. (No tuition fees then and as long as you didn’t spend too much on books your grant would just about keep you alive during term time.) The jobs were usually manual labour. One involved being part of a gang making pre-cast concrete lintels, beams and blocks. I’m sure this predated Carl Andre. Another, less artistic but nonetheless satisfying, was loading the line in a brewery’s bottling hall. Here there were good days and bad. Bad when your team was assigned to loading the empties – unremitting, thirsty work. Good the ones, less easy to recall, spent unloading crates of new-filled bottles. (Fowler’s Wee Heavies were the refreshments of choice, at a third of a pint and 8 proof, their illicit consumption, juked doon behind a palette, was both fast and effective.)

Here, whatever the pay, the incentive was to save enough money as quickly as possible to spend at least a month hitchhiking around Europe. Assuming one slept rough, never sat down in a bar, avoided all restaurants and only drank wine which came in large plastic bottles, 50 quid would get you a surprisingly long way.

Eventually it came – graduation with a pleasingly non-swot like 2.1 in Fine Art and time, probably, to get a proper job. After some research a letter wings its way to UK gallery directors (there weren’t that many) announcing their good fortune in having me available for recruitment. Only one replied, Richard Demarco. At that time, 1972, Ricky was based in the New Town elegance of Melville Crescent: the gallery plush, the receptionists posh. Mr. Demarco was on the phone to New York, would I just take a seat. Ok, international art world here I come. All goes well at the interview. When can I start? The vulgar question of money intervenes, the answer £12.00 a week. When it’s pointed out that this is less than I’m getting on the dole my proto-employer agrees and blames the bloody Scottish Arts Council. Ah, what propitious words and, ah, what could have been…

After two or three unsuccessful interviews at national and local authority galleries an (as far as I was concerned) outsider application came up. I got a job as course assistant at the then four-year-old Open University. At the time and now I still think this was the best possible real start to my career. Firstly because the socialist vision that everyone deserved a proper university education, developed by Harold Wilson and Jennie Lee was still very clear and strong. We were also all conscious that what we were, a distance learning university that did not have students on campus, was new and that we were at the front of using, and sometimes inventing, new ways of educating. Internally the organisational structure was flat and democratic – no senior common room, no high table. The range of experience of research, writing, publishing, radio and television production and teaching that I enjoyed in the three years I worked there, not to mention the outstandingly talented people I met, could not have been bettered anywhere. I worked on preparing a course on Architecture and Design 1890 – 1939, taught on the Arts Foundation and Renaissance and Reformation courses and started a temporary exhibitions programme at our Milton Keynes HQ.

I never really looked back after that although soon, going to work at the Scottish Arts Council, Ricky and I were to meet again…

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

More details of the campaign here.

As one Aberdonian commented this morning on Twitter: “It’s disgusting. ACC sold our integrity, our reputation, our culture, our heritage, our green space and democracy yesterday.” (JackKeenan)

The general feeling in the City today is one of deep-set frustration and despair. The campaign to save UTG and the Peacock proposal has been high profile and bitterly fought in the North East for months now. The culmination of which was a £300,000 public enquiry (paid for by the tax payer) to discover what Aberdonian’s wanted the space to be used as.

Despite a majority being in favour of saving UTG, the council made the highly questionable vote of 20 to 7 in favour of Sir Ian Wood’s concrete tomb. 12 Councillors chose not to vote, a decision which is both disgusting and disgraceful considering the monumental impact of the outcome.

As the decision stands, the concrete will start flowing, our green space will be lost, our hopes for a cultural centre in the city will die and Aberdeen’s faith in democracy and our council has been shattered.

The mood in Aberdeen is one of despair and heartbreak.

Thank you Alex

Also available on my BLOG>

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The Orchid Thief, For Rachel, reflection, On Union Terrace Gardens

By Alex Hetherington

Dear Rachel:

This is my text for you and the campaign; I had a draft but felt it awkward and in the light of your passionate accounts of the 10-year long commitment by Peacock and their remarkable team and your own narrative, your life-story, within in this, I felt it would be like a voice unheard in a scream.

So I’m writing this like Adaptation, by Charlie Kaufman, as played by Nicholas Cage, as he tries to adapt The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean from page to screen, and in doing so becomes, at the same time, a character in a fictional narrative and a real person, with pain, and frustration and disbelief, which I think are some of the collective and individual feelings exposed by this ongoing fight between Alpha Male Big Daddy, Sir Ian Wood and a population of people bulldozed into a kind of marginalization. The sub-line to the book by the way is: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession. I don’t have all the fact and figures and I don’t want this to be about speculation and rumour, because that’s poor writing, I’m not a journalist, I’m an artist, who writes sometimes and curates, occasionally. I want to add my voice because I believe that’s all I have.

Nicholas/Charlie struggles to interpret Susan’s writing, about a Southern orchid thief, whose life has been damaged by a terrible incident, that he forever blames himself for. He drove his car out of his driveway, without seeing an oncoming car, he got distracted and the passengers were killed; later on a tornado hits his hometown, his house is destroyed and he’s left with nothing.

What I’m saying is I am struggling with what the motivations are here; I am struggling to interpret this, because, well the bottom-line is in its title Union Terrace Gardens. Union. Gardens. I think Sir Ian Wood is a kind of orchid thief, I’m not saying his activities are criminal, but he’s by-passing something significant that’s right under his nose. I think also he’s missing out on a debate between what is public and collective and what is private and exclusive. But maybe I am letting feelings get in the way. Here’s a metaphor: Orchidelirium is the name the Victorians gave to the flower madness that is for botanical collectors the equivalent of gold fever. Wealthy orchid fanatics of that era sent explorers (heavily armed, more to protect themselves against other orchid seekers than against hostile natives or wild animals) to unmapped territories in search of new varieties of Cattleya and Paphiopedilum. As knowledge of the family Orchidaceae grew to encompass the currently more than 60,000 species and over 100,000 hybrids, orchidelirium might have been expected to go the way of Dutch tulip mania. Yet, as journalist Susan Orlean found out, there still exists a vein of orchid madness strong enough to inspire larceny among collectors.

Anyway, back to Union. And art. I have to acknowledge something here: I lived in Aberdeen for four years, I called it my home, I fell in love there and grew up there, was nurtured there, given a chance: I studied at the city’s art school, out in Garthdee, a kind of periphery, but potent nonetheless to Aberdeen’s cultural glow. And it does glow. It made me who I am now, an artist with some success. I sensed then and I know now a kind of division in the city, and I think its that division which sits at the heart of this unrelenting tug-of-war.

I looked at the public consultation web site and I am astonished that its representatives are exploiting global examples of similar proposals without citing their corresponding cultural significances, the art of these places as an activation of public unity. That are unique to these places. And kind of universal too. It’s sloppy. An idea that experience may well be more significant than more shopping bags.

Anyway back to the screenplay: Cut to Donald Fisher, recently deceased founder of the Gap, you know the clothes store, with jeans and t-shirts. So here he is in San Francisco and he’s decided to build himself a mausoleum that will coincidentally hold his enormous contemporary art collection. He decides he’s going to build this museum in the Presidio area of the city, close to the Golden Gate Bridge. This museum is “sprawling” by all accounts. The Presidio is a park, and “is characterized by many wooded areas, hills, and scenic vistas overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean”. Donald Fisher’s net worth at the time of his death was said to be about $3 billion. However, the plan engendered widespread scepticism and even outright antagonism among some historic preservationists in San Francisco, not to mention the vast majority of the city’s inhabitants. You can maybe understand why. It’s a beautiful spot in the city. It may be that its uses or its significance were underestimated or devalued until someone came along, a very rich someone came along and threatened to tear it down, build a freeway through it and site a museum in the middle of it. Cut to Donald Fisher abandoning his plans. In the interim something happens, the force of objection makes him change his mind, perhaps, or that his tactics may affect his business, or that he understands the content of his collection, the art he has amassed and wishes to display may have more significance than his obsession to get his own way, no matter what. I am speculating here. It’s only a film/true story.  Cut to: his collection being annexed as part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Where it belonged in the first place. Happy Ending. Fade to black.

I was going to put in a little piece here about Naomi Klein’s text The Shock Doctrine, but it felt too melodramatic. But the good folks of Aberdeen might want to read up on it, its an interesting read.

Anyway Rachel, I was moved, more than you’ll ever know, about what you said about your city. I am also thinking about the V&A coming to Dundee, what that will do to the city, or the DCA and what that has achieved. Or what the new Riverside Museum in Glasgow, built by Zaha Hadid, will do for there. Its awe-inspiring.

I’m looking right now at the plans for Peacock and its so beautiful, a jewel. I’m also looking ‘through’ it to see effort, sustainability, enquiry, experience, fortitude, promise, a solution. It kind of requires though a bit of vision and trust.

There’s probably another agenda here. I’m thinking about Eva Merz, and her book/project Get A Fucking Job. And Aberdeen’s council’s attitude to homelessness. Or to its general social problems, affecting broad parts of Aberdeenshire. I guess that’s part of the mix too. All I know is people cross oceans to see art. I’ve transported myself to Bilbao right now, I’m inside Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim. Now I’m in Herzog & de Meuron’s Philharmonic Hall being built in Hamburg, to regenerate the underused waterfront area, falling into dilapidation. I guess right now someone, lots of people, are shouting out about elitism. But you know what I think, its more about ambition and aspiration. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We can get over it. I think maybe Sir Ian Wood is being elitist. You probably can’t say these things though, the arguments always go the other way. Anyway I was just thinking about that famous collage by Richard Hamilton: “Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?” The answer being: open planning and being bold (the text is from an advertisement). I think these two sentiments are worth bearing in mind. So. “What makes Aberdeen so different, so appealing”?  I think I’ve said enough.

I am livid at a sense of cultural failure, that this could slip through our fingers so easily, without dialogue, or thoughts about compromises, or that its my-way-or-the-highway mentality, that this reeks of, but am inspired by a condition of resilience and all of its audaciousness, its potency.

I’m sorry if this isn’t what you expected me to write, but I think maybe its readers will take something more away from it than another set of facts and figures or a rant about DOING THE RIGHT THING.

I don’t want to write a piece about the merits, values, sustenance, intelligence of art, people have to find that out for themselves. The deal here is something is being denied for a vaster population than Sir Ian Wood will ever know. And is that is theft.

Best for now

Alex H

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ALEX HETHERINGTON: performance/visual artist/curator/writer

http://www.alexhetherington.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37855769@N07/
http://atriangleofneed.blogspot.com
http://www.mediascot.org/alt-w/alexhetherington
http://twitter.com/hetheringtonAJ
http://www.re-title.com/artists/alex-hetherington.asp

I’ve been under the radar recently but thanks to you all for keeping up with this group and posting your images…  Please tell others to get involved and keep up with the progress of this ongoing debacle in Aberdeen.  We need arts centres and civic spaces that offer more than commerce and concrete. Anyway, I’ll not launch into a rant…

Peacock had some good news this week about their Scottish Arts Council funding for the new building.

As you may know, the Scottish Arts Council deadline on the £4.3 million lottery award for Peacock’s new arts centre was due on the end of March.  However, as the results of the public consultation for Sir Ian Woods ACSEF City Square proposal in Union Terrace Gardens will now not be released until 13th April, the Scottish Arts Council have decided to review the award in June 2010, so support for this opposing City Square scheme can be measured.

This means that Peacock still has the support of the Scottish Arts Council and potentially Aberdeen WON’T loose out on this huge investment in arts and culture.

Peacock’s board requested that the arts centre be a part of this public consultation for Union Terrace Gardens but were refused.

Have a read of the two links below..

Herald article 28/03/10

Peacock Visual Arts UPDATE

I will post the details of the public consultation on the City Square once they are released on April 13th.

Meanwhile.. if you’ve not done so already

sign the petition to show support for Peacock and watch this for a laugh..

Thanks,
Rachel