NVA News

SPEED OF LIGHT - limited edition publication for sale

2009-12-09T00:00:00Z

A fabulous opportunity to own a unique artwork

Inspired by our recent submission to the Cultural Olympiad for the Artists Taking the Lead programme, NVA’s creative director, Angus Farquhar, has written his personal account of running the Lochaber marathon earlier this year.

The work entitled “The Speed of Light”, is a runners log and has been printed as a limited edition of 100 signed copies.

This collectable Artists Book is priced £11.50 including P&P. Buy your copy using the button below:

For further information on The Speed Of Light you can download our proposed Project Plan HERE

NVA Launch HALF LIFE Permanent Landworks Website

2009-08-28T00:00:00Z

HALF LIFE Permanent Landworks are the legacy of NVA’s extraordinary art event that took place in Argyll in September 2007. There are three different interventions in contemporary forest and wooded settings which can be viewed alongside previously existing sites of archaeological interest in one of the UK’s richest prehistoric landscapes. There are 4 described walking routes of varying lengths which can be visited over 1 – 2 days.

We have launched a website that gives new interpretations on the works and the sites that can still be visited, along with downloadable maps and directions. You can also order your own copy of the original HALF LIFE publication to be posted out to you. The four main routes include some of the most powerful existing Neolithic sites and forts in the area along with three NVA interventions, designed by Simon Costin and James Johnson in collaboration with Angus Farquhar.

To start exploring visit: www.halflife.org.uk

NVA, 1 of 5 Scottish artists shortlisted for Artists taking the lead

2009-08-14T00:00:00Z

The Speed of Light, partnered by United Visual Artists (UVA) and Edinburgh International Festival, is one of five proposals from Scotland to be shortlisted for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, a programme of 12 major artistic events to take place around the UK at the same time as the Olympic and Paralympic games. The Speed of Light builds on the incredible response to NVA’s groundbreaking environmental artwork The Storr: Unfolding Landscape see past projects

The Speed of Light is a celebration of human potential through dramatically capturing the phenomenal energy of sporting effort within an animation of one of Scotland’s best known natural assets, Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh.

The work aims to create iconic imagery of physical interaction with the landscape on an immense scale through the invention of a new human powered lighting system with a moving audience ascending a set route to the summit of the hill.

Athletes young and old, professional and amateur, on foot, in wheelchairs and on bikes, will be viewable from various points each lit in their own colour coding, moving at the differing speeds of their physical discipline across and around the hill, creating flowing animated light patterns.

Imagine red bursts of light as sprinters bring a central track to life, while on the night horizon there are green horizontal trails as marathon runners move, silhouetted above the Salisbury crags…

www.uva.co.uk
www.eif.co.uk
www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk/scotland

White Bike Plan for G.I. Art Festival

2009-05-22T00:00:00Z

“The White Bicycle Plan proposes to create bicycles for public use that cannot be locked. The white bicycle symbolizes simplicity and healthy living, as opposed to the gaudiness and filth of the authoritarian automobile.” Provo manifesto

NVA are developing the Witte Fietsenplan for Glasgow International 2010, a re-enactment of the infamous White Bike Plan, a Dutch anarchist action from the mid 1960’s.

Referencing and reinvigorating a key legacy from the political, philosophical and ecological directives of the Dutch Provo movement, NVA will create a number of white bikes, which will be freely available across the city, to move between venues for the duration of the G.I. programme. Following the festival the bikes will be donated for further public use.

The Provos are thought to have evolved out of the maverick artist / shaman- Robert Jasper Grootveld’s anti-smoking happenings in June 1964. The following year other groups appeared as a fusion of small groups of youths around the pacifist Ban-the-bomb movement. The Provos borrowed their name from a 1965 doctoral dissertation, which talked about “young trouble-makers” as ‘provos’.

NVA’s re-enactment will celebrate and document the profound impact of the original concept on the development of sustainable transport policies for overburdened city centres and the power of the artist to drive change and provoke the mainstream to question their apathy in the face of institutional inertia.

NVA announces SAGE (Sow And Grow Everywhere) Scheme

2009-05-08T00:00:00Z

SAGE: Putting food production into the heart of urban life

SAGE (Sow and grow everywhere) is a visionary initiative hoping to generate a massive change in community food growing in the Glasgow Metropolitan region. A joint venture by NVA and ERZ landscape architects, SAGE will transform derelict and vacant land into vibrant, stimulating, visually attractive spaces for people to grow their own food. It will be designed as a mobile initiative – when any land is required for development- the infrastructure can move to a new site.

Central to SAGE will be the total growing ‘toolkit’, with a support programme for horticultural skills development. The growing toolkit will include high quality, durable, specially designed grow boxes/bags made from recycled materials. The kit will also offer community groups, schools and individuals a how-to-grow manual, internet based back-up resources and deliver a local support network linking each site to the nearest available expertise.

SAGE will allow people with no previous experience of growing their own food and herbs to both provide for their families, friends and potentially offer surplus to a wider area. It will complement, support and extend the existing network of community food initiatives, expand localised composting schemes and distribute locally grown vegetable plugs. SAGE also offers the potential for the larger initiatives to be developed into vibrant social enterprises.

SAGE News

A major scoping study is being carried out on behalf of the Glasgow and Clyde Valley (GCV) Green Network Partnership. This study will guide the development of a range of demonstration sites. These will be across Metropolitan Glasgow and within participating local authorities in the Clyde Valley. The study will be available in August 2009.

NVA has received three years funding from Culture and Sport Glasgow to develop SAGE demonstrations sites across the city, working in collaboration with the Area Arts Officers.

Get Involved

SAGE is looking to meet with anyone interested in hosting a demonstration project. Do you have a site within your community which you would like to transform, and a group wanting to grow their own food? If so, get in touch with NVA who can be contacted on 0141 332 9911 or send an email to robert@nva.org.uk

Some facts

Britain’s food travels 17 trillion miles every year to reach our plates

It costs four barrels of oil per person to feed us every year

More and more of us want to grow our own food - Vegetable seeds are out selling flower seeds

80 per cent of Britain’s population live in towns and cities. Allotments are the only option for many to grow food

Allotment waiting lists are getting longer, and in some areas it might take 10 years before an allotment becomes available

In times of recession, the development of urban land has significantly slowed down, leaving barren gap sites across urban Scotland. These sites are draining communities, the local environment and local economies

NVA work with St Peter’s Seminary & Kilmahew Woodlands

2009-04-30T00:00:00Z

NVA announce major role in plans to save St Peter’s Seminary and Kilmahew Woodlands

NVA have received an award from the Scottish Arts Council’s National Lottery Public Art Fund. The award is for the development of a commission plan for the creation of significant temporary and permanent artworks at St Peter’s Seminary and Kilmahew Woodlands, Cardross.

NVA have been working closely with property developers Urban Splash, over the last year. They have been exploring a variety of options for the transformation of the buildings and 120 acres of semi-ancient woodlands, following vital initial capital support from Dunard Fund.

Woodland, ecology and landscape character assessments have already been funded by The Gulbenkian Foundation, Forestry Commission Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage to ensure a dynamic and sensitive approach is taken to any future interventions. The work has been undertaken by ESS ltd and ERZ landscape architects.

“The support from the Scottish Arts Council to create a strong commission plan is the best possible start to creating a world-class creative landscape within St Peter’s and Kilmahew woodlands.

The site carries a remarkable 500 year history of human intervention, from the mediaeval foundations of Cardross Castle, the survival of natural woodlands and a stunning Victorian designed estate, to the powerful imposition of the 20th century seminary buildings. A creative landscape is driven not by a single focus or perspective on its heritage, conservation, environmental or leisure value, but by an inspired reading of the layers of history that underpin it, that define its complex character and the visionary artistic responses that can expand this narrative into a new century. The plan will allow us to look at temporary and permanent ways to take these ideas forward”
Angus Farquhar, NVA Creative Director

Local consultation

Detailed discussions have also been taking place with local residents in Cardross and Renton to develop a mix of possible strategies to achieve open public realm access, build training facilities for young people in the areas and expand resource management. This has led to the formation of the Kilmahew Woodland Restoration Group to take forward these community aspirations.

“It will be an amazing place if we can have the woodlands back and restore the special atmosphere and simply unique qualities of the location.”
Catriona Macaulay, Cardross resident & KWR group member

“The good thing and the great challenge of the new Kilmahew / St Peter’s proposals, is linking local people of this generation to the land that surrounds them. There is a rich cultural history that has been shared by many but particularly the villages of Renton and Cardross. We hope to reactivate a sense of pride and ownership for future generations to enjoy.”
Archie Thompson, KWR group member from Renton

The developers

Urban Splash are a leading UK development company who regenerate decaying industrial warehouses, mills, victorian terraced houses and other buildings, into modern housing, apartments and penthouses, as well as constructing new build developments. They have been working closely with the Archdiocese of Glasgow, Historic Scotland, Gareth Hoskins architects and NVA to explore the options for the reuse of the derelict seminary buildings and wider estate.

“The site has a remarkable history and we think it can have a bright and interesting future while securing the future of one of Scotland’s most important listed buildings. NVA have delivered exciting projects over the last 17 years and we look forward to continue working with them on developing options for the wider site strategy.”
Patrick Sheridan, Project Director Urban Splash

The Scottish Art Council

Commenting on the NVA project Karen Ward Boyd, Senior Lottery Officer said:

“Our vision for Public Art in Scotland is ambitious; developing this area will take time as we want to explore the many exciting possibilities that public art can bring to communities throughout Scotland.
The NVA project at Kilmahew Woodlands will contribute to the creative transformation of this historical and culturally significant space and create a vibrant place for the people of Scotland.”

Links to Associated Press Articles:
The Herald, 29th April 2009
The Evening Times, 30th April 2009
Architects Journal, 29th April 2009

All aboard at NVA

2009-03-26T00:00:00Z

NVA’s Board of Directors has gone through a few changes recently. David Arnold has taken a career sabbatical and will be travelling the world for the next two years. He has therefore had to step down from his responsibilities as Chair. He will however be keeping in touch with us and continuing to contribute and support our work as a Board member. We extend a huge thank you to David, who has been a dedicated Chairman since 2007.

We would like to congratulate our new elected Chairman, David Cook who has served on our board since September 2006. David is Chief Executive of Wasps Artists’ Studios and The Wasps Trust, two charitable social enterprises providing affordable premises for the arts sector in Scotland. David joined Wasps in 1991 and since then the organisation has more than doubled in size, with over £15m invested to improve the working conditions of Scotland’s creative community.

David was instrumental in establishing the Scottish Artists Union in 2001 and is currently board member of CESEL Services Ltd, Vice-Chair of Glasgow City Heritage Trust and an Advisory Board member and Specialist Business Adviser for the Cultural Enterprise Office.

We have also appointed a new board member, so a warm welcome to Pauline Hinchion. Pauline is the Chief Executive for The Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS), a membership organisation for community recyclers in Scotland. It exists to provide a one-stop-shop for information and support to existing and emerging community recyclers, to help the sector fulfil its potential on the journey towards a Zero Waste society.

Pauline has been developing and supporting social enterprises since 1995 and has been in involved in the community recycling sector since 1999. Previous to her current CRNS engagement, Pauline was Chief Executive of FEAT Enterprises and Grangemouth Enterprises. She was also a Director of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, the Scottish Social Enterprise Academy and the Recycling Advisory Group Scotland (RAGS). Her experience will be invaluable as NVA explore social enterprise options for the long term sustainability of the work.