#culture

Alyth Pipe Band aims high with help from ADT community fund

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Professional tutor Jim Semple (far left) oversees piping practice led by Pipe Major Charlie Munro (right)

Alyth Pipe Band is getting ready to compete at national and maybe even international level, thanks to a grant from Alyth Development Trust’s community projects fund.  The fund is contributing £2000 to help the band hire specialist tuition from leading experts within the Scottish piping and drumming communities.  

Founded in 2006, Alyth Pipe Band has long been a focal point of the town’s social and cultural life.  They play at major events such as the annual Christmas Lights Switch-On ceremony, and also lead the town’s participation in national occasions such as Remembrance Sunday.  

They are also a familiar sight at charity events and fundraising events for the town, where their presence boosts residents’ sense of pride and engagement in the community, as well as contributing to the preservation and promotion of Scottish heritage, arts and music which helps strengthen the town’s visual identity.

Pipe Major Charlie Munro of the band explained:  “The grant has allowed us immediately to start structured tuition for our existing members and, we hope, attract new members keen to learn piping or drumming.  As our pipers and drummers learn new skills and confidence, we plan to enter into national and perhaps even international competitions as ambassadors representing the Alyth district. 

“Tuition and support from leading experts will encourage new and existing members to gain new skills and become confident enough to compete with other bands.  It will also help younger or junior members to work towards achievements in music and pipe band studies.  We’ll be able to offer specialised or one-to-one support for these requiring more enhanced learning environments that may not be possible in bigger bands or at school bands.

“The plan is for us to increase our membership and reach competition standard within six months to a year.  It’s ambitious, but we’re determined to get there!”

The grant funding will allow the band to set up workshops and focus groups to help young and upcoming players or help existing players to enhance their skill set.  Alyth Pipe Band already provides members with free tuition from the current pipe major but the enhanced tuition enabled by the grant will allow the band to provide a higher standard of tuition to a larger skill base from absolute beginner to academic level.

The grant has already enabled the band to retain the services of piping expert Jim Semple, who is a professional bagpipe tutor, examiner and adjudicator.  Jim was a member of Strathclyde Police Pipe Band for 22 years and won the world pipe band championships twice while there.  He also played for the Vale of Atholl grade 1 band and was Pipe Major of Linlithgow and District Pipe Band.

ADT’s community projects fund distributes the community benefit funds provided for Alyth by the operators of the Tullymurdoch Windfarm, some five miles north of the town.  Applications to the fund are judged by an independent panel of volunteers drawn from across the community.  Apply at https://lovealyth.org.uk/projects/alyth-community-projects-fund/.

Seven weeks to get your entry in!

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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…/

Calling all aspiring young artists!

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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:

  • Art work can be in any medium
  • Work should be related to the theme of “Reflections”
  • There should be some connection with Alyth
  • There are two age groups
  • The competition will close at the end of September
  • There will be a judging panel, initially looking at photographs of the finished work
  • An exhibition of the art work will take place after judging
  • Vouchers will be awarded to the top performers in each category
  • Photos of work should be submitted to: artcompetition@alyth.online
  • Submissions by 30th September 2023

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.

CPF grant helps second Strathmore Open Studios take flight

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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.

Millhaugh site wins £94k first-phase funding

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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.

Chance to shape culture and sport in our area

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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.

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