Imagine Portobello is a two-day event, Saturday 29 October, 11.00-3.30 and Sunday 30 October 1.00-3.00 (community lunch at 12.30), organised by local people, to highlight the potential for public art and cutting edge design to contribute to the future development of the area.
The event aims to involve the local community in thinking creatively about how the environment of Portobello can be enhanced for the whole region as well as residents and local businesses. There will be exhibitions, presentations of imaginative ideas about the design and use of public spaces and places in Portobello, especially around the area of the beach and promenade.
Damian Killeen, chair of Big Things on the Beach, a Public Arts Trust in Portobello says:
Imagine Portobello is organised by Big Things on the Beach, a pubic arts charity formed by local people in 2003 to explore the potential of the beach in Portobello as a site for the creation and display of public art works by established and emerging artists in Scotland. The event has been made possible by the support of the Scottish Arts Council, the Edinburgh City Council, the Lighthouse and Portobello Community Centre.The people who built the Portobello Town Halls old and new, who built imaginative cottages and grand villas and who created Europe's first open air swimming pool with waves, dance halls and a marine garden didn't think small and neither should we. Big Things on the Beach - a group of local residents - believes that Portobello could become a byword for cutting edge public art and urban design that will make it stand out as a must see destination for visitors to Scotland and a stunning place to live. The event will provide local residents with the opportunity to look at a number of creative ideas developed by artists and architects and to come forward with their own visions, everyone is welcome.
Programme:
- Saturday 29 October
- 10.45 - Exhibition opens
11.00 - Big Things on the Beach - Damian Killeen
11.30 - Progression - Euan Harvey presents this year's public art project - what are those windsocks all about?
12.15 - Pyrotechnic Peonies - Honor Thomson, of Wiszniewski and Thomson Architects, Musselburgh, fires off some different designs for Portobello's beach - first shown as part of the recent ‘6000 Miles' exhibition at the Lighthouse
14.00 - Stillness and Occurrence - a series of large scale colour seascapes shot on Portobello beach between 1995-2000 - exhibited and published internationally – presentation by David Williams.
14.30 - Eco-Town - transport, heating, food supply, jobs - looking at ways to create a prosperous future for Portobello once the oil runs out - Justin Kenrick, with illustrations by Eva Schonveld.
15.30 - Close
- 12.30 - Exhibition opens - Community Lunch
13.00 - Keynote Speaker and presentation of Re-aPier a proposal for a major Lottery bid for a modern-day pier.
15.00 - Close
- 10.45 - Exhibition opens
