The Town Collection (1995—) — Social Art Library

By

Alix Rothnie

A photograph of a map of Huntly’s art trail.

As a means of archiving the social art projects undertaken throughout Deveron Projects’ history, the Town Collection is an evolving public art project, under the stewardship of community members in Huntly, Aberdeenshire.

Deveron Projects operates under the framework 'the town is the venue' – to inhabit, explore, map and activate the place through artist driven projects. The Town Collection is a physical embodiment of this ethos. It consists of (currently, as of 2020) eighty works on display in public spaces and some private residences of the town – the newsagents, the school, ASDA, the bowling club, the pub, the charity shop, the community hall, the nursery, the Nordic Ski centre, the church, the police station… The collection is diverse in medium, from a signpost to a sculpture, paintings to pathways. With every new artist taking up residence in Huntly, a new work is added to the collection. Each artwork is hosted by a member of the community, or a space, that had an involvement or connection with the artist in residence, or the project itself. To visit the collection is to also encounter the people who can pass on stories, recollections and information about the project. As such, the collection acts as a living archive, a tangible trace of the projects, and a legacy. As time passes, and the town and its people change, the collection too must be managed, and evolve. A few works have been lost, stolen or misplaced. One has floated off down the river Bogie. Sometimes their histories are forgotten, and they are taken down and stored away. From 2017-19, Alix Rothnie worked as Town Collection Curator with Deveron Projects, in which time new works were commissioned and put on display, with an accompanying events programme to reignite histories and stories around the works, to safeguard their future and restore the legacies of projects. A new Town Collection map with guided walks was also produced.

More information: https://www.deveron-projects.com/town-collection/

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Alix Rothnie

Alix Rothnie is a curator and artist, and graduate of MSc Modern and Contemporary Art: History, Curating, Criticism at the University of Edinburgh. In addition to her own moving-image work, she has worked on social, archival and curatorial projects with a number of rural art spaces across Scotland including Deveron Projects in Aberdeenshire, and is currently artist in residence with Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre on North Uist, and works as Film Town Programmer with Alchemy Film & Arts in the Scottish Borders.

cargocollective.com/alixrothnie