Crawick Artwork Project

Crawick Artland Project

World renowned artist presents a major Scottish public art project

World renowned artist Charles Jencks in collaboration with the Duke of Buccleuch will be launching a major new public art project on Thursday 25th September at 19.00hrs in Sanquhar Town Hall.

Crawick Artland is being created on a former opencast mine site at Crawick in Upper Nithsdale Dumfries and Galloway.

This huge 55 acre site shows the scars of mining in the dramatic features on the ground with it’s cliff, plateau and ravine.

In what is to be the largest and most ambitious of Charles Jencks projects some 150 000 cubic tonnes of earth will be moved and sculpted into new landforms to create the foundations for an Artland which it is hoped will build into an attraction that will draw visitors from around the world.

Crawick is one of half a dozen projects Charles Jencks is currently working on his most recently finished being Olympic Forest Park in Beijing.

Crawick Artland Trust will own the site on a long lease from Buccleuch Estates and the project is being funded by the Buccleuch family with a substantial endowment to secure its long term future.

At the heart of this project  is working with the local community and future aspects of the project include encouraging creative and outdoor learning, establishing an art/crafts apprenticeship scheme for young people and use of the site as a venue for community activities in what it is hoped will become the sites amphitheatre.

Thursdays meeting will be a public presentation on the proposals for the site after a lengthy period of development and discussion with community leaders.

As the project develops it is hoped to provide opportunities for other artists to create works for the site.

The Duke of Buccleuch says “ Over the centuries this small but special part of Nithsdale has enriched us with food and minerals. Now through the vision of the wonderful and internationally recognised talent on our doorstep I dream that it can find new beauty and meaning that will engage the minds and senses of us all as well as many from further afield.”

Professor Rex Taylor the recently retired Director of Glasgow University Crichton Campus is Chairman of the Artland Trust and says “ I am delighted to be involved in one of the most exciting environmental art projects in Scotland today. This really is restoration with a long term vision and true regeneration requires changes in perceptions – in the ways in which people think about a place. We have seen this on a huge scale in Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle. We are sure that Artland will change perceptions about Upper Nithsdale in the long term.”

ENDS

Notes

The first public meeting will be held in Sanquhar Town Hall on 25th September, 2008.

Further public meetings will be held as the Project progresses.