Creative festival set to offer a Platform for artists
An annual arts prize offering an exhibition in Perth to a Scots-born artist has been won by Janeanne Gilchrist, a photographer and image maker from Edinburgh.
As the JD Fergusson Arts Award winner 2017 she received the creative honour yesterday at Perth Museum and Art Gallery.
Janeanne’s underwater photography, taken while freediving, reveal a ghostly and beautiful world under the surface.
The award is funded by Perth Common Good Fund and the JD Fergusson Arts Award Trust and is given to a promising Scottish artist as a way to boost their profile.
The award alternates each year between a travel award and an exhibition award and Janeanne is being offered an exhibition to develop her photography.
The Edinburgh-based artist will get an exhibition in Perth from November 17, 2017- March 18, 2018 .
The award is open to artists whose last professional training was over three years ago working in any visual arts discipline. Applicants must be born in Scotland or lived for half their life in Scotland.
Applications for the 2018 JD Fergusson Travel Prize will open in summer 2017. A new arts festival coming to Perth and Kinross this month will showcase the area’s creative talent in the world of contemporary arts.
Platform, the Festival of Perthshire Creativity, will take place at numerous venues across the whole of Perth and Kinross from March 25 to April 1.
In its inaugural year, the festival will host over 30 events in venues across Perth and Kinross including exhibitions, design, photography, artists talks, gigs, special installations, drama and film.
Venues include the historic Innerpeffray Library - Scotland’s first lending library - the Fair Maid’s House, the Cateran Trail and Perth Museum and Art Gallery, which is due to be refurbished from 2018 to 2021 as part of an ambitious city cultural development.
Highlights include a special installation, the Story Tree - a huge split level willow and paper sculpture at AK Bell Library - the UK premiere
Underwater photography artwork by Janeanne Gilchrist, 2017 winner of the JD Fergusson Award
Platform will welcome Snapchats and Angus Ross
of a short art film by Perthshire-born artist Susan Mowatt; a live drama at Breadalbane Library: plus live music, several workshops and talks by artists and creatives.
Opening on Saturday, March 25, and continuing throughout the week, Perthshire Open Studios will be celebrating its tenth anniversary with a celebratory exhibition and Perthshire Visual Arts Forum are showcasing their work.
Angus Ross will talk about his internationally renowned furniture design work and methods at Perth Museum and Art Gallery on March 29.
His stunning curvaceous steambent furniture will also be on show at 2 High Street from March 25 until April 1.
Snapchats at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, from March 25 - April 1. The exhibition, selected by Gary Brown, combines highlights from projects where young people have worked together with various groups, including Fairview School (for pupils with complex needs), Perth Six Circle Project (for adults experiencing exclusion because of mental health problems, substance misuse or prison experience) and New Horizons (for local women, many of whom don’t have English as their first language.)
Platform is being run by Perthshire Creates, a network of contemporary creative activities, and Culture Perth and Kinross, which works to support the development and delivery of cultural services across Perth and Kinross.
Through a week of events, programming and celebration, Platform will encourage established and emerging artists in Perthshire to push their creative boundaries and explore the contemporary cultural identity of the region.
Helen Smout, chief executive of Culture Perth and Kinross, said: “It seemed fitting that we’re looking forward to how Platform will raise awareness of artists in the region, and also push these artists creatively.
“Culture Perth and Kinross is proud to be part of the first annual Platform, which we see growing and being an innovative, must-do event on Perthshire’s cultural calendar.”
For more information visit www. culturepk.org.uk