How Painting a Mural as a Class Can Lift Students' Spirits

Now introducing guest blogger, Marcela De Vivo, from Los Angeles, writing on how painting a mural can lift students’ spirits. Art in Healthcare’s University Society recently completed a mural at Mannafields School, which has greatly brightened up their playground..

Mural at Mannafields School by Art in Healthcare University Society

It’s no secret that art can help independent young people find themselves, or even be used as a valuable means of healing and therapy. In fact, making art together can provide a group with a focused sense of meaning and pride.

For a classroom, such a powerful bonding experience can take things to the next level and crafting a large-scale mural is a perfect way to accomplish this. Here are a few impressive benefits of classroom mural-making that teachers should consider.

Image Courtesy of Franco Folini/Flickr.com



Creating Group Art Can Create a Group

Assign a classroom to individually paint or draw projects on their own; you’ll still have the same motley crew of young minds presenting varied islands of creativity. Assign that same collection of students to somehow produce a room-sized, coordinated color painting and the result will be an integrated organism of students with a shared sense of identity.

Making a work of art collectively is a powerful way for students to get to know each other in a profound manner. You can’t make a mural without voicing your ideas, showing your skills and—a necessary part in creating a group identity—exposing your vulnerabilities.

If a class-created mural strikes a chord among its artists, the set of individual minds that created it will have been at least slightly transformed. Leaders will have emerged. In the brainstorming, executing and administering phases of mural-making, students are likely to discover hidden strengths, allies and sense of purpose.

The Sum is Greater than its Parts

Beginning artists—or students who don’t even see themselves as artists—can be easily daunted in the creative process. Creating a work of art as part of a team can undo this insecurity in magical, unexpected ways.

First, while fledgling painters and sketchers feel nervous when presenting their ideas and feelings all alone, when their work is in conjunction with a community of classmates, it can take the heat of their individual performance. When even a clumsy-handed student can take a share in the pride of having created a massive wall painting, it’s an equally massive ego boost.

Image Courtesy of NID chick/Wikimedia Commons

Second, there truly is an element of alchemy to group creation. The voyage of discovery that happens when you let your ideas run free next to the visions of others is truly liberating—and among young people new to letting the creative juices flow, it might just be life-changing.

Murals Are the Change We Want to See.

Here’s a true anecdote that illustrates the positive power of murals. Several years ago, a Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit hired a muralist to redecorate the walls of one of its factories, giving free reign to the artist. Rather than impose his own vision, the painter asked each and every one of the plant’s line workers to tell him the images they wanted to look at every day. The artist captured a cornucopia of favorite singers, hot rods and beloved hunting dogs…resulting in the happiest, most productive set of workers the plant had seen in years.

Similarly, a group of students in Scotland found a sense of meaning by creating colorful murals for children in a school.

The point? Our lives tend to be a lot brighter when the backdrop is a colorful representation of our dreams, hopes and memories. This experience is all the more powerful when we are the ones physically responsible for creating that environment—and potentially even greater when we work together to transform the worlds of others into better places to live.

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer in Los Angeles who writes on everything from health and fitness to technology and marketing. In addition to writing for Northwest Pharmacy (http://www.northwestpharmacy.com/drug-safety-and-authenticity.html), she loves inspiring creativity in others, especially her children, in order to encourage teamwork.

Volunteering for Art in Healthcare: Art & Artist Research Project for QR Codes

When I first volunteered for Art in Healthcare's art and artist research project for QR codes, I hadn’t heard of the organisation, didn’t know what a QR code was, and had no formal training in art. The idea of doing something useful and interesting from home appealed – but would they have me?  Very swiftly I was invited to a friendly induction meeting and let loose on some paintings in the Oncology Ward of Edinburgh’s Western General.

Arabella Crum Ewing's, The Sea, The Sea

The volunteer brief is to write a short piece, up to 500 words, on each artwork, which will be accessible through the QR code on the label and on the website.  After looking at the works 'in situ', I use online resources, including the artist’s website.  Sometimes I then contact the artist.  I’ve found all of these steps fascinating, and, although at times unsure about my interpretations of the paintings, I enjoy putting the descriptions together. I’ve now written around 20 descriptions of a variety of pieces – water-colours, oils, multi-media collages, etchings and screenprints, photographs and tapestries.  I’d like to write about my experiences with the three works illustrated below.

Arabella Crum Ewing’s etching, The Sea, The Sea, is in a small room in the Western’s oncology ward.  I enjoyed my conversation with the woman whose bed was next to it. (One of the pleasures of visiting the hospital is seeing how the people who see the pictures every day react to them.) She liked the vivid scene and the detailed birds.  But like me she was puzzled by the pink mushroom-like plants in the foreground! I never worked out what they were. (Any suggestions from botanists reading this are welcome!) But when I got home I found a bigger puzzle.  The etching’s full title is Oaharra! Oaharra! The Sea! The Sea!  Was Oaharra a place name – possibly Irish?  Or Maori? I’d been in New Zealand – was that the Auckland Harbour Bridge in the background? Eventually I googled “the sea, the sea”, and found that Xenophon recorded these words as the cry of the Ancient Greek army after their trek through Asia Minor.  In Greek it was Θαλαττα (pronounced “thalatta”), so the title was simply The  Sea!  - repeated four times. At some point someone had mistranscribed the Greek words.  Mystery solved!

Stephen Lawson's, The Old Town from Waverley Bridge

Stephen Lawson’s, The Old Town from Waverley Bridge, interested me because of the artist’s distinctive style.  He has specialised in time-lapse photography and his website includes a fascinating 12 minute film describing the development of his technique.  The work is composed of 60 vertical slices of the view, taken at regular intervals over a day. The railings at Waverley Bridge are in the foreground, and as one’s eye is drawn along the long photograph, from Arthur’s Seat through the Old Town, the Castle, the Scott Monument to Princes Street on the left, one also becomes aware of the changes of the light on a November day – from dawn at 8am to darkness by 6pm.  Another time lapse work on the website is of the Callanish Stones on Lewis.  On a visit to Inverness Museum in December, it was a wonderful surprise to see that photograph on display.

Sometimes a painting can delight because of a personal connection.  I took an instant liking to Shona McEwan’s, Inverleith Allotments, because I had recently seen my stepdaughter, actor Gowan Calder, in a Fringe play there. This watercolour seemed to me to perfectly capture that fertile, but slightly windswept and haphazard quality that allotments seem to have!   I learned that Shona had carried out some public artworks in the 1990s and I contacted her to see what she was doing now.  This is part of her reply:

Shona McEwan's, Inverleith Allotments

“I’ve always had a great love of colour and pattern.  After graduating I was commissioned to do murals for the Children’s Ward at Monkland’s General Hospital, and for the recreation area of Polmont Young Offenders Institution.  I also helped restore a Second World War mural in Abbot House Dunfermline. I’ve been an arts worker within a social work day centre, and am now doing my best to bring an artistic slant to promoting the work of the adult protection committee.  I don’t do any of my own work now, but since moving a year ago, I’ve now at last got my own garden, and with my seven-year old daughter am discovering the joy of planting seeds and bulbs and watching things grow.”

It was lovely to get this email, which says so much about the importance of art in everyone’s life. 




Written by our guest blogger and volunteer, Kate Calder, while Martine Pugh is away.

References: Arabella Crum Ewing The Sea! The Sea!:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalatta!_Thalatta!

Stephen Lawson: Edinburgh Old Town from Waverley Bridge:

www.lumieregallery.net/wp/4368/stephen-lawson

Artist uncovered: Adrian Wiszniewski

Martine Foltier Pugh meets the internationally renowned artist

Adrian Wiszniewski apologises for the mess as he opens the doors to his studio conveniently built in the garden of his house on the outskirt of a tranquil Renfrewshire village. This is in fact a very well organised series of working spaces designed to accommodate large scale paintings and small detailed watercolours.

 Adrian Wiszniewski in his studio

image courtesy of William Murray Brown

Many people will be familiar with Wiszniewski’s figurative paintings of pensive youths engaged in mysterious pursuits. The figures are formally poised often against exuberant landscapes of sensual, luscious flowers and fantastic birds, flooded with vivid colours interspaced with large expanses of black. The overall feel is of suspended animation. 

First Anachronism of the Day  2011, oil on canvas, 122x183cm

image courtesy of the artist

Wiszniewski relates his group paintings to the ‘Attitudes’ of Lady Hamilton, the 18th century beauty who became famous in Naples for her living pictures where she posed as characters from Antiquity. His figures are indeed actors, or metaphors, that allow the artist to explore poetically certain issues. Their features are composite and this hybridity indicates their creator’s internal argument. But the debate needs no resolution. Wiszniewski likes to keep things open-ended, this is what sustains his excitement for his work. 

The Shaman  2011, gouache on paper, 114x157cm

image courtesy of the artist

He chooses to depict his characters on the brink of action because of the innate potential concentrated in that moment. For instance he prefers the loaded tension of Michelangelo’s sculpture of ‘David’ to Bernini’s contorted and spent hero. 
Adrian Wiszniewski was born of Polish, Irish and Scottish parentage and brought up in Glasgow. Although happy to have been born in Scotland, he has always felt more European than Scottish. He first studied architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture before taking up painting at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in the 80s. He finally graduated in mixed media with filmmaking. European and American art together with performance artists such as Bruce Mclean and Gilbert & George, these were the early influences that inspired his distinctive take on the figurative. 

Les Temps Perdus  2011, oil on canvas, 122x91cm

image courtesy of the artist 

He left Glasgow soon after graduation to see the world and partly also to break away from the Scottish art scene and the ‘New Glasgow Boys’ label that had brought early fame to himself and his GSA peers Steven Campbell, Ken Currie, Peter Howson and Stephen Conroy. Wiszniewski went on to build an international reputation with solo exhibitions and many prestigious public commissions.
He has been back in Scotland with his family for a number of years and continues to defy categorisation by successfully mastering new practices in parallel with painting:  printmaking, ceramics, interior design – he designed the chair in his studio. He is also an acclaimed writer and playwright. The reason why he does not take up photography is simply because he would have to master it to perfection and there would be no time for anything else! 

Fruit on a slice of lemon  1997, acrylic on canvas, 90x75cm

Art in Healthcare collection

Interestingly the painting in the Art in Healthcare collection is not figurative. It was commissioned in 1997 particularly for a hospital environment and the brief specified “no black” because it is a “depressing” colour. Typically Wiszniewski thought otherwise. After all “Manet, Matisse, Chagall and Picasso all have a fantastic use of black” he adds. His appreciation of Matisse is particularly strong here with the flat planes of bold colours. Adrian Wiszniewski’s sense of humour comes through in the title, the slice of lemon in question is the pool of yellow on the floor.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

Video on Adrian available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/9Yd6jkhaEQM

With many thanks to Adrian Wiszniewski for his time and hospitality.

Links
http://www.adrianwiszniewski.com/index.html
http://www.beauxartslondon.co.uk

The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is two hundred years old

In July this year the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (REH) will be two hundred years old. Its bicentenary is marked by an ongoing series of events and lectures that highlight its history.

To trace the contributing factors which led to the creation of the REH, we have to go back to
a particularly tragic incident in 1774.

At twenty-four, Robert Fergusson was already a much admired and established poet whose brilliance thrilled the crowds in pubs around Edinburgh, the ‘Auld Reikie’ of his poem. 

Today his statue outside the Canongate church still entertains as it appears to be hurrying past visitors to the Royal Mile. 

Already prone to bouts of ‘melancholia’, his condition worsened after a head injury incurred in a fall. 

Soon it became too difficult for his mother to look after him. If Fergusson’s family had been well off he would have been sent to a private institution at great expense. But for ‘paupers’ the only option was the Bedlam asylum where treatment was non- existent and restraint prevailed.  

  

Fergusson’s health deteriorated fast and he died two months later. The circumstances of his death had a lasting effect on his friends and followers such as Robert Burns who publicly acknowledged his influence. 

One of Fergusson’s friends was Dr Andrew Duncan who visited him in Bedlam. Duncan was so outraged by what he saw that he resolved to improve the conditions of so-called ‘lunatics’.
He set about to raise support and funding for the creation of a humane asylum but despite his efforts and the prominence of his position - he was President of the Royal College of Physicians for a number of years - progress was very slow. But he did not give up although it took eighteen years to appoint trustees and another fifteen for a Royal Charter to be granted to him by George III. Finally sufficient funds were secured and in July 1813, thirty nine years after Duncan conceived his plan, the ‘Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum’ opened its doors to its first fee-paying patients in the village of Morningside south of Edinburgh. Provision for non-paying patients would have to wait longer still until the 1840s. 

These beginnings seem very modest by today's expectations but they were ground breaking at the time and greatly influential in shifting the perception of mental disorders from crimes to illnesses.

 

Other pioneers were emerging in England 
and Europe, for instance William Tuke in 
Yorkshire and Philippe Pinel in France, 
who advocated replacing chains with 
humanity and compassion in the care of 
the so-called insane. 

So inspirational were Pinel's ethics to the 
inaugural Board of Management of the 
hospital that a plaque portraying him as a 
younger man was embedded in the fabric of 
the building as well as his bust as an older
man to commemorate the centenary of his 
death. From this high viewpoint he can still 
oversee the hospital's comings and goings. 

During the nineteenth century, two long-serving hospital superintendents were highly influential in asserting the reputation for innovation of the REH. Dr William Mackinnon believed that patients should be kept busy and that their work should reflect the skills they had before coming to the asylum, tailoring, weaving and gardening for example.  We now recognise in these principles the basis of modern Occupational Therapy.  

Mackinnon House garden created and maintained by patients

Lothian Health Services Archive collection

Dr Thomas Clouston raised the standard of hospital attendants by improving their pay and education. He also modernised the existing hospital units and expanded them by pushing for the purchase of neighbouring land.

Nursing staff in hospital corridor, late 19c

Lothian Health Services Archive collection

The memory of these and other pioneers is kept alive today with the preservation and display of their painted portraits and commemoration plaques and with the naming of buildings and wards around the hospital. There is something heartening about the thought that the principles of the Enlightenment that started it all can still inspire the future generations of carers and practitioners two hundred years later.


Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh


With many thanks to
Tom Arnott, REH Operations Manager, who took the time to give me a guided tour of the hospital and brought its history to life
Lothian Health Services Archives (LHSA) for providing digital documentation. 
The LHSA have launched a Royal Edinburgh Hospital Appeal for photos, letters and any other documents ranging from the 18th century to the present day
www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk  


For details of the remaining lectures in the Bicentenary series:
www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/home/REHBicentenaryLectureSeries.htm

Reference articles
on Robert Fergusson  http://www.edinburghliterarypubtour.co.uk/makars/fergus/fergusson.pdf 
on Bedlams, William Tuke and Philippe Pinel http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/~/~/link.aspx?_id=4A14D38C7A9D4911BFF3189417B56EE1&_z=z
on the Royal Edinburgh Hospital 
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/state-of-mind-how-the-royal-edinburgh-hospital-helped-change-attitudes-to-mental-illness-1-2559542
'History of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital' by Alexis R. Easson, typescript c.1970, courtesy of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital

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The next 'Artist Uncovered' blog

will be on Adrian Wiszniewski

Artist Uncovered: Barbara Rae

This month our tour of the Art in Healthcare gallery focuses on Royal Academician painter and printmaker, Barbara Rae. The four works in the Art in Healthcare collection illustrate some of the media and techniques used by the artist: printmaking, paint and collage. 

Mull Ferry  watercolour  105x88cm  1996
Art in Healthcare collection

Her creative process always begins with creating studies on location whatever the weather. She is currently away somewhere “on the west coast of Ireland, sketching near the ocean’s cliffs in wild weather” her spokesperson tells me.  But Barbara Rae is not interested in topographical features and rejects emphatically the label ‘landscape painter’. What she seeks out are the signs that show the passing of time and the craft of humankind that give pattern and structure to the landscape, as she explains:

"It's the historic aspect fashioned by mankind, whittled away by use and weather that fascinates, the outline of an ancient farm building half-hidden in dense grass, a portal, wooden door once used now broken, paint flaking, a standing stone engraving barely visible clad in moss. I take time, sometimes weeks to absorb, you might say "experience" an area and meet the people there before I begin work." (March 2013)

Walled Garden, Culzean mixed media, collage  81x107cm 1979  

Art in Healthcare collection  

She logs her observations in beautiful and detailed studies, many of which can be viewed on her website.
Back to her studio, sometimes the process of transformation begins with the translation of her studies into print. Rae has been using printing to experiment with the image and with colours since her undergraduate days at Edinburgh College of Art. She uses her studies only as guides and does not aim to reproduce them in the finished artworks. Monotypes worked in the studio explore the original study, key variations forming the basis of future paintings.

Ballachulish I  monotype 87x70cm1985

Art in Healthcare collection

Barbara Rae is always challenging her painterly process through controlled layering of significant collage material and washes and through her search for inspiration which takes her to the margins of Europe, Africa or the United States. The sombre palette acquired during her formative years in Scotland changed completely during a trip to New Mexico in 1985 where the clear light revealed the intense colours that have recurred in her work ever since.

Spanish Window  lithograph 99x72cm 1992

Art in Healthcare collection

She often revisits the same locations and when I enquired if her trips followed a cyclical pattern, she replied:

“Now and then I return to old haunts because I know things will have altered. Paso del tiempo - time passes. Aspects of the historical artifact that first caught my attention can change radically, or in different light in a different season cause me to notice something new on it or around it.” (March 2013)

Time is as much a feature of Barbara Rae’s practice as the locations that inspire her. There is the time she spends researching and recording the alterations brought about by man and the passage of time. This slow cumulative pace is then punctured by the release of creative energy and the cathartic rituals of her painting process, itself a race against time. And let’s not forget that her paintings themselves reveal many archival layers that we, the viewers, can savour at a leisurely pace.


Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance visual artist and writer based in Edinburgh

Don't miss out on any of our forthcoming blog posts. Subscribe by email address at the "Follow us by Email" above right and receive notifications when we make a new entry.

The next blog will be a whirlwind look
at the history of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital
to mark its bicentenary

Credits

With thanks to Barbara Rae for her comments.

‘”It’s chance, but it’s controlled chance”: An Interview with Barbara Rae’ by Andrew Lambirth, in Barbara Rae, published by Lund Humphries in 2008.

Links

Barbara Rae  http://www.barbararae.com/ 

Royal Academy of Arts http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/

Art in Healthcare University Student Friends

An assumption some people make is that students spend their spare time partying. Or not, in the case of the members of one particular Edinburgh University society as I found out when I met their president Sarah Johnston who explained how the Art in Healthcare University Student Friends organise a variety of activities in care homes for the elderly, in play schemes for teenagers and in schools.

AiH University Student Friends painting a mural in a school playground

Sarah tells me that although the society has only been running for three years, they already have sixty members who come from very diverse departments, Medicine, Engineering, English, Law, History of Art to name just a few.

What draws them in?

Art for one thing. Some members took art at school but had to drop it, so now they can enjoy doing it through the society, says Sarah.

Art in Healthcare helps by giving them some guidance and ideas for workshops but art practice in itself is not an essential requirement, enthusiasm and a willingness to try amply compensates for any lack of skills. What is far more important is enjoying working with people.

artworks with care home residents

Every Wednesday the society visits Lennox House, a care home in Edinburgh. They go as a group and offer a one on one experience to the elderly residents who, for one hour, engage in topical art projects such as Christmas cards and a chat. It is not surprising that their sessions get the biggest turn out of all the workshops in the care home. And the feeling of satisfaction is mutual judging by these two volunteers' feedback:

"I have been inspired by the residents of Lennox House, who all have such vast catalogues of memories and experiences to share!"

“It was a really rewarding experience. I had a lot of fun! It’s nice to work on a project and see a smile on their faces afterwards.”

 

The society from time to time organises activities for the teenagers who attend the Star Youth Club in North Berwick. This service is very well received not only by the youngsters, but also by the staff who appreciate how much the children benefit from the creative activities the society offers. The young artists must have been thrilled when the Youth Club exhibited and sold some of their artworks at the Edinburgh Art Fair which helped raise funds for their play scheme.

making messy fireworks paintings

Other projects have included painting a mural to brighten up the neglected playground of Mannafields primary school in Edinburgh. The theme was Noah’s ark and the children were involved in the design of the animals during workshops led by the Society. It took the volunteers four days to complete the work.

As well as their regular weekly activities the society members also find the time to fundraise to cover their travel and materials costs. If any of you readers came to Art in Healthcare’s ‘Art from Art’ exhibition in February, you will remember those delicious and beautiful cupcakes!

the primary school completed mural

This overview of their activities is by no means all-inclusive, but it gives you some idea of the time and dedication the society invests in the local community. However their success does not rest only on their excellent organisation and management skills, it is also about the fun they get out of it and the enjoyment they give others.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

Don't miss out on any of our forthcoming blog posts. Subscribe by email address at the "Follow us by Email" above right and receive notifications when we make a new entry.

Coming up next the 'Artist Uncovered' post on Barbara Rae.

 

Credits

With thanks to Sarah Johnston for all the information and to AiH University Student Friends for their comments.

All images courtesy of AiH University Student Friends.

Links

http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/society/Art-in-Healthcare/


 

Artist Uncovered: Kate Downie

Two large canvasses face each other in Kate Downie’s studio, their typically energetic and expressive marks awaiting her finishing touch before their exhibition this summer at the Royal Scottish Academy. One is a reconstructed view of Beijing where she did a residency in 2011, eagerly immersing herself in the street life of the city, and the other is a sweeping and empty landscape. Despite or rather because of the absence of human forms, the juxtaposition of the dark monolithic cityscape with the depopulated countryside is characteristic of Downie’s sensibility for the human condition.

Kate Downie in her studio

She recalls vividly deciding to be an artist at the age of five, she was better at drawing than reading, and credits her later outsider’s aesthetics to being uprooted, aged seven, by her British born parents from her native North Carolina to the North East coast of Scotland.

Another clear childhood memory is her first sighting of the Forth Rail Bridge from the train down to Edinburgh. The iconic structure is a particular favourite of hers. She once set up studio on Inchgarvie island, right under the bridge, in a structure made out of scaffolding poles . She has sailed under it and today she is thrilled at the thought of abseiling off it during the sponsored event organised by Art in Healthcare in May! Kate Downie’s enjoyment of life is evident and so is her inquiring mind as she sketches on her newly acquired iPad while we talk. Drawing is second nature to her.

The Concrete Hour, wall drawing, mixed media,

Where, Where Artspace, Beijing

Image courtesy of the artist

This residency on the island led to a wall installation in the Round Room of the Talbot Rice Gallery. Performances and wall drawings occupy a special place in her practice. She adds almost with a pinch of regret that in different circumstances she would have been a graffiti artist. While in Beijing, she drew a cityscape, ‘The Concrete Hour’, on the walls of the gallery dominated by flyovers where she was based and punctuated her charcoal drawing with marks made with bicycle tyres and shoes. She is looking forward to doing a performative drawing this summer in the Kelly Gallery in Glasgow which, incidentally, is only a ten minutes walk from the city’s own Chinatown, itself situated under the M8 motorway as it slices through Glasgow.

Kate Downie has more than a penchant for the liminal and the transgressive. Coastlines, crossroads, flyovers, bridges, the gaps in between, all are transient spaces that she actively seeks out and celebrates with Romantic sensitivity.

Leidseplein (Night Travels), monoprint, 63 x 74cm

Art in Healthcare Collection

Her drawings and paintings are not simply triggered by visual stimuli here and there, they come from deep within. They are conceptual portraits. Each has its own place among the others and can take anything between a few weeks and several months to gestate. Her compositions emphasize the space around objects or ‘negative space’, a term she regards as a misnomer because these optical reversals bring about new awareness for our surroundings.

She mentions Rachel Whiteread’s ‘House’ where that artist created an inside-out domestic space by casting the whole interior of a house. Like Downie’s works, Whiteread’s sculptures are about the memory of the people who inhabited the space but unlike Whiteread, Downie invites, urges us the viewers to step in and complete her drawings and paintings.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a visual artist and freelance writer based in Edinburgh.

See http://youtu.be/AdUojSKW4fo for short video of Kate's Downie interview!

Credits

Thank you to Kate Downie for her time and input and for her warm welcome.

Links

To find out about Kate Downie's abseil fundraising event for Art in Healthcare, go to http://www.justgiving.com/katedownie1

Kate Downie’s website and online gallery http://www.katedownie.com/gallery.php 

The Royal Scottish Academy http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/ where her exhibition ‘Walk through a resonant landscape’ will run from August to October 2013

The Royal Glasgow Institute Kelly Gallery http://www.royalglasgowinstitute.org/ where she will install and perform this summer.

Where Where Art Space, Beijing http://www.wherewhereproject.com/index.html   

The Forth Rail Bridge http://www.forthbridges.org.uk/railbridgemain.htm 

The Talbot Rice Gallery http://www.ed.ac.uk/about/museums-galleries/talbot-rice 

Rachel Whiteread’s ‘House’ http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2012/07/house-rachel-whiteread-art-victorian-home-193-grove-road-london/