A collaboration between WHALE Arts, Edinburgh Art Festival, Canal View Primary and Walker and Bromwich – in celebration of May Day.
On Friday 4th May artists Walker and Bromwich will bring their 2017 Edinburgh Art Festival commission to Wester Hailes, which will see their giant inflatable dragon paraded across the community accompanied by every child from Canal View Primary School, who have been working with artists over the past year.
The artists and WHALE Arts have been running a Family Art Club over the past few months, in which the participants have created costumes, banners and placards for the parade. The week of the parade we will see more workshops and a dance lunch club all leading up to the parade, play and performance on Friday. The whole school will follow ‘The Dragon of Profit and Private Ownership and a group of actors across the school grounds at 11am on Friday 4th May.
The school will be gifted photographic prints taking from the day to display throughout the school as a legacy of the project.
In 2017 the Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) commissioned artists Walker and Bromwich to make ‘The Dragon of Profit and Private Ownership’ responding to the the 2017 EAF theme ‘The Making of the Future’. The inflatable ‘Dragon of Profit and Private Ownership’ encouraged viewers to question how our society is run, taking inspiration from the original town planner Patrick Geddes, whose vision centres around bringing the triangle of ‘Work/Folk/Place’ together.
In developing the original commission the artists worked with children from Canal View Primary, a selection of whom participated in the festival opening parade with the dragon along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, dressed as leaves referencing Patrick Geddes famous quote ‘By leaves we live, not by the jangle of coins’.
Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich are an established collaborative duo based in Glasgow, Known for their ambitious large-scale sculptural works and participatory events. They say;
“It’s been incredibly enriching working in Wester Hailes with WHALE Arts. Canal View Primary school has a refreshingly visionary approach to teaching and the children and families that have taken part in this project have been brilliant, bringing their own inspiring ideas to the artwork. It has been a great opportunity to take our project, ‘The Dragon of Profit & Private Ownership’ back to the community that was so influential in its development.”
Helena Barrett, WHALE Arts Creative Placemaker says; ‘
“The partnership with Edinburgh Art Festival and collaboration with Walker and Bromwich has been a fantastic opportunity for WHALE Arts 3 year placemaking programme, in which we are working across Wester Hailes to run creative outreach activities with community partners, cross-community wide events and commissioning artists to create public artworks. The project has enabled us to extend our outreach and relationship with Canal View Primary School and their wider school community bringing high quality arts and cultural experiences to their families.”
Ann Moore, Head Teacher, Canal View Primary says:
“The engagement with artists Walker and Bromwich, as well as the Edinburgh Art Festival and WHALE Arts has been an amazing experience for the children and families here at Canal View Primary School. They have been involved in so much exciting work in the expressive arts and it has been great to have the opportunity to be able to share that with the local community.”
Chief Executive of WHALE Arts Leah Black says:
“We are delighted to be part of such an exciting collaboration between creative minds which has the children of Canal View Primary School at its heart. We are all looking forward to the parade and – over time – witnessing the legacy of the project as part of Helena’s role as Creative Placemaker in Wester Hailes.”
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Notes to Editors
About WHALE Arts
Since being set up by local people in 1992 WHALE Arts has firmly established itself as the cultural anchor organisation for Wester Hailes. As a community-led arts charity and social enterprise, WHALE Arts’ mission is to be the creative heart of a vibrant, thriving community.
WHALE acts as a conduit between our community and creative opportunities through the direct delivery of projects, programmes and events and by connecting our community with city and national cultural partners. We are based in the purpose built WHALE Arts Centre – ‘The WHALE’ – a unique community asset that provides a range of high quality creative spaces including an Arts Workshop, Performance Space, Darkroom and Digital Media facilities for our community.
About Walker and Bromwich
Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich are an established collaborative duo based in Glasgow, whose work has been presented at Tate Britain, London; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Thessaloniki Biennale, Greece; and other international venues in Europe, Asia and the Pacific region. Awarded and Fellowships include Welcome Trust Production Award, Arts and Humanities Research Council Award, The Nelson Mandela Legacy Project, SA/UK, Pretoria; Art and Architecture Fellowship Kielder, Northumberland; Pier Art Centre Fellowship, Orkney; HIAP International Fellowship, Helsinki. A monograph on their work is published by John Hansard Gallery and is available through Cornerhouse Publishing. walkerandbromwich.org.uk
About Edinburgh Art Festival
Founded in 2004 and now in its 15th edition, Edinburgh Art Festival is the platform for the visual arts at the heart of Edinburgh’s August festivals, bringing together the capital’s leading galleries, museums and artist-run spaces in a city-wide celebration of the very best in visual art. Each year, the Festival features leading international and UK artists alongside the best emerging talent, major survey exhibitions of historic figures, and a special programme of newly commissioned artworks that respond to public and historic sites in the city. The 2017 Festival attracted over 315,000 visits. Edinburgh Art Festival is a registered charity supported by Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council. For more information, please visit www.edinburghartfestival.com or follow the Festival on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram@EdArtFest #EdArtFest
Media information
- For enquiries, interviews please contact Leah Black on leah@whalearts.co.uk or Helena Barrett on helena@whalearts.co.uk or call 0131 458 3267.
- Free-to-use images are available by contacting Jenny Salmean on jenny@whalearts.co.uk