The £7m redevelopment of Helensburgh town centre has won another national award.
Billed as Scotland’s first outdoor museum, created as part of Argyll and Bute Council’s CHORD project, has won the Saltire Arts in Public Spaces award.
The museum was curated and delivered by arts organisation WAVEparticle in collaboration with landscape architects Austin-Smith:Lord for the council.
The awards, which were awarded at a ceremony at the Saltire Society Headquarters in Edinburgh on Thursday yesterday, highlight excellence and demonstrate how arts and crafts can be an intrinsic and beautiful part of our built environment.
The outdoor museum in Colquhoun Square was developed and curated with the input and support of local residents, schools and organisations, aiming to gather together stories and artefacts about the town that are surprising and revealing, entertaining and stimulating, as well as educational and informative.
The resulting collection features a series of historic artefacts encapsulated in acrylic and three specially commissioned artworks by Lesley Carruthers, Kate Ive and Chris Coleman-Smith.
Together, the exhibits include a celebration of science – John Logie Baird’s Stookie Bill; Business – the ‘Lily Springs’ and the ‘Comrie’ bottling plants; art and craft – the wee shoes crafted by the town’s first shoemaker; social history – a family heirloom that comes with the story of the lost art of making bespoke butter pats; and entrepreneurship – the bell of the famous PS Comet commissioned by Henry Bell of Helensburgh, regarded as the father of steam navigation.
Each exhibit has a plinth which gives the historical, cultural and geographic context to the exhibit as well as a QR code linking to the Museum website www.theoutdoormuseum.com
WAVEparticle lead artist Peter McCaughey, said: “It’s fantastic to win this Saltire Award. There were brilliant projects from across Scotland in the running for this and to have won is great for everyone involved.
“The Saltire Award is the latest in a series of awards and prestigious nominations this year, and our hope it that this makes the future of the outdoor museum undeniable and that each year we see wonderful additions to this alternative museum, embedded at the heart of Helensburgh.”
The council’s policy lead for infrastructure, Ellen Morton, also welcomed the news: ‘’This is yet another piece of good news for Helensburgh. Winning yet another award is a huge success and is just another in a long list of reasons for people to visit the town.
‘’The museum makes the newly revamped Colquhoun Square a very interesting place to visit. We would encourage anyone, resident or visitor, to go and take a look.
‘’The focus of this ambitious council is on attracting people to our area, creating jobs and economic prosperity. Projects like this go a long way to doing just that.’’
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