Where next for the Burns Banner?

The Burns Banner was unveiled on 6 August, in brilliant sunshine, and to the sound of Sheena Wellington reprising ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That’. It was a vibrant addition to Market Street through grey days and sunny days during the Festival, and we were very sorry to take it down after five weeks.

At present it is rolled up in storage. We haven’t quite given up on the idea that it might go to the Burns Birthplace Museum, which seems to be the right home for it, but its size is presenting some problems. It may be that we have to dismember it and send squares back to those who made them… If you have a viable alternative, please do let us know.

 

The Burns Banner unveiled!

The Burns Banner was unveiled on August 6th. It is a  fantastic and vibrant addition to Market Street. After speeches by SPL director Robyn Marsack, Mary Shields of Homecoming Scotland, and artist Stephen Raw, Sheena Wellington, who sang at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, sang the second and last stanzas of ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That’. The assembled, including letter contributors from as far as Mull and Dubai, passers-by, press and friends of the library, joined in while the sun shone. We hope you’ll be able to make it to the see the banner you helped make, but for those who can’t, we’ll be adding more pictures here soon. For now, here is the Burns Banner itself!

You can a full image of the Burns Banner over on ‘The Banner’ section, which also has a full list of contributors, and a full list of the letters chosen. AND scroll down on this page to see the video of the making of the banner …

Making the Burns Banner… the Video

done

 Video by Juliet Rees

Juliet Rees is a freelance film-maker who has worked on many community arts projects across Scotland, in a range of settings and with people from diverse backgrounds.

AND NOW – Want to know if your letter was included? Click here to find out …

London

At exactly the same time Stephen was running a workshop on Orkney, his sometime helper, Matthew, organised two workshops 700 miles away for the London Diaspora to be given a chance to contribute. The nearest underground station was aptly named ‘Caledonian Road’ and they painted away happily in a smart refurbished church hall. Matthew was concerned that a lot of the 300,000 Scots living in London were going to turn up at the same moment but, in the event, numbers were manageable because of the complete shutdown of the Piccadilly line for both workshops! Hardy Burns enthusiasts, not put off by such an inconvenience, used buses and the resulting paintings were really creative, many making it into the final artwork.

 

BergeN

This ‘n’ was sent in at the last minute from the membership secretary of the Bergen-Scottish society, Barbara McIntosh who was concerned that she had missed the deadline. The letter has been faithfully repainted in the crayon colours and to her design so that it could be considered for inclusion in the final piece. And it can be revealed that it has made it but Stephen cannot remember in which word, so Barbara will just have to have a close look through it all!

Sanquhar Academy

On a windy day back at the beginning of June, Stephen was welcomed by the Sanquhar Acadamy art and design teacher, Mr James Colman who had some great students raring to have a go at painting for Burns. There was a strict cut-off time as the school bus left on the stroke of 3.30pm to get kids back to the outlying villages. ‘It all suddenly went quiet and I was left alone with 25 wet letters’ recalls Stephen…

Argentina

Four people from ‘Scotland in Argentina’ spent a good evening producing these letters sent to us by their secretary Monica Loreto.  Monica said Stephen could fill in the white backgrounds with whatever he thought suitable.

She writes: Lucy Patricio chose an ‘L’ as she associates her name with a region of the Lowlands.

Norberto Lassalle chose an ‘E’ for Edinburgh, as he hopes to visit Scotland in the near future.

Mary Burich chose the ‘A’ for no particular reason, except that she tried to simulate the drawings introduced to this country by the Italian Community known as “Fileteado”. The fileteado was born in the cart factories of our city in the early twentieth century. It was a decorative activity spontaneously developed by the masters of this craft, until it gradually turned into a pictorial genre. It was also used on trucks and public transport until the 70s, when it began to have a widespread use.

Monica Loreto chose the ‘D’ for “Dalriada” as a symbol of the area where part of the Scottish nation was born and also the name of their Scottish Country Dance Exhibition Group.

Learn more about the Scottish community in Argentina by visiting: www.scotlandinargentina.com.ar

Saughton Prison

Stephen held a workshop at Saughton Prison in Edinburgh.

Violet takes to the plinth

Burns on the street! Violet Dalton, Head of Volunteering at the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), will be appearing atop Antony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth between 5 and 6pm on Thursday 23^rd July. She will be wearing a plaid (see left for how the plaid looks! dress rehearsed yesterday here at the Scottish Poetry Library) borrowed from NTS’s property manager at Bannockburn – he’s also a re-enacter and wore the plaid in Braveheart when he was an extra. She’ll have some handspun wool from the Weaver’s Cottage too, so she’ll be taking the opportunity to get some knitting done while she’s there.

Violet also plans to recite some poems. She’s going to get some Burns in there with ‘Scots Wha Hae’ – not just because the NTS looks after the cottage, (it looks after all the Burns properties in Alloway and is building a new state of the art Burns Museum there),  but in honour of his birthday of course – and there’s the Bannockburn connection too. She’s also planning to read some Liz Lochhead, Tom Leonard and Edwin Morgan, and is still swithering over some others. As head of volunteering, she’s hoping to encourage more people to volunteer, not just for NTS, but for other good causes too. She’s passionate about environmental matters and some of her poem choices may reflect this.

When asked, she told us she’s nervous, but excited too! She said she’s not too scared of heights, but is a little worried about the cherrypicker that sets you onto the plinth.  But when else would you get an opportunity like this in life?

A stitch in time…

Meanwhile, up in Inverness, a craft group produced letters of quite a different mettle! We are very glad to see these stitched Burns letters!