REMINDER: Just over seven weeks to go to get your artwork in for the Alyth Young Artists’ Competition. There are two age categories: under 10 and between 11 and 18, on the 1st September 2023. Your entry should be connected to Alyth, however loosely, and on the theme of “Reflections”, and can be in any medium: painting, charcoal, crayon, collage, mixed media, three dimensional or any other form. Full details and T&Cs are on our website: https://lovealyth.org.uk/…/calling-all-aspiring-young…/
An exciting opportunity has been created (by ADT and the legacy funding from the dissolution of the Arts and Crafts Guild) to instigate a competition to promote the work of young artists in Alyth.
The competition will have two age categories: under 10 and between 11 and 18, on the 1st September 2023.
Art work submitted should be connected to Alyth, however loosely, and on the theme of “Reflections”.
The work can be in any medium: painting, charcoal, crayon, collage, mixed media, three dimensional or any other form.
There will be prizes for each age group in the form of vouchers to be spent in local businesses and we should like to hold an exhibition of finished work to celebrate the creativity of participants. The competition will run until the end of September and submission of work will initially be by a photograph of the work, which should be sent by email to the address below.
As the school holidays are upon us we hope that these may provide an opportunity to research, reflect and develop a piece of work in line with the guidelines.
Remember:
We very much hope that this will inspire all young artists to develop their artistic ideas and showcase their talents and we look forward to receiving a lot of submissions.
We’re excited to be supporting the second Strathmore Open Studios event coming up in May with a grant of £2000 from our Community Projects Fund. This year’s event looks likely to involve more than 40 artists and craftspeople exhibiting their creations up and down Strathmore and especially in Alyth.
This means Strathmore Open Studios 2023 will be even bigger than last year’s inaugural event in August which attracted huge numbers of visitors to see displays of work from 35 artists and creative people across 14 studios in and around Alyth.
There’s already a Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/groups/898880744891009/ – soon to be joined by a dedicated website and, hopefully, an Instagram page. We will of course be helping to promote more news about Strathmore Open Studios as the event draws nearer. See the story in this month’s Alyth Voice for more details.
ADT’s plans for the unused former sawmill at Millhaugh on Bamff Road have received a massive boost with a grant of nearly £94,000 from the Scottish Government.
The grant, from the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme, will cover half the cost of the first phase of ADT’s project to acquire and redevelop the site for a range of educational, environmental, social, and tourism-related activities on behalf of the local community. ADT hopes to hear about bids to cover the rest of the cost from other funding sources within the next few weeks.
The site, close to the heart of Alyth, currently contains several derelict mill, shed, storage and abandoned residential structures and forms the natural entrance to the Den of Alyth woodland and riverside walk areas, which are a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The Millhaugh regeneration project responds directly to the findings of last year’s Community Action Plan (CAP) for Alyth. The CAP was developed through a very extensive community consultation that engaged hundreds of individuals and groups throughout the community and generated six main themes for action over the next few years.
The CAP consultations identified the Millhaugh site as one where community ownership and re-development would make a massive contribution to all the CAP themes: repurposing derelict sites, developing new community and recreational spaces, promoting new events and activities, enhancing biodiversity and protecting habitats, and supporting tourism in the area.
Once a significant employer in the town since the 19th century with a cornmill and later a sawmill, Millhaugh has been vacant and unused since the 1980s, becoming increasingly derelict and attracting some vandalism and anti-social behaviour. The current owners are enthusiastic about seeing the site move into community ownership and become a public space that will benefit the whole town and create a new natural entrance to the Den of Alyth.
Once all the funding is in place, ADT will acquire the site and begin refurbishing existing buildings where possible, demolishing unsafe structures and tidying up the site generally. At the same time, there will be a wide-ranging public consultation to guide decisions on what sort of activities the redeveloped site could best be used for. Existing buildings and materials already on the site will be re-used and recycled as far as possible.
Perth & Kinross Council’s culture and sport consultation event in Blairgowrie scheduled for this coming Monday (19 Sept), which we highlighted here last Sunday, has been postponed because Monday is now a UK bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral. The consultation event will now take place on Monday 3rd October from 5pm – 7pm.
Perth & Kinross Council are writing new plans to shape the future of culture and sport in the area. To make sure that as many people as possible have their voices heard, they’re holding information workshops across the area throughout September.
They’ll be in Blairgowrie/Rattray on Monday 19th at Rattray Community Connect in the Main Hall from 4pm – 6pm. There’ll have a joint introduction and then split into groups who are interested primarily in sports or in culture to understand what local people enjoy, what they think needs to change and what PKC should be doing more of. The PKC team will then explain their next steps- the strategies will be the blueprints for the next five years.
This is an opportunity to shape the future of your area, so please do share with anybody you think might be interested, it’s an open invite and the more voices PKC hear from, the stronger the strategies will be. Spaces are limited, so please do let PKC know if you’re planning to come along by emailing cld@pkc.gov.uk. There will also be an online survey available.