Crieff artist Eleanor helps bring city buildings to life
A pair of historic Perth buildings playing a key part in the bid to be the City of Culture have been given a colourful makeover thanks to a Crieff artist.
The city’s AK Bell Library and Perth Museum and Art Gallery columns have been ‘wrapped’ in public art designed to grab peoples’ attention - and give a glimpse of what awaits inside.
Eleanor Young is the brainchild of the pieces. She is the designer behind Strathearn-based design company Fun Makes Good, known for its signature colourful and geometric creations.
A graduate of Textiles at the Glasgow School of Art, Eleanor moved to Strathearn after a decade living and working in Glasgow.
Inspired after visiting Perth Museum and finding that few of her friends had done so, Eleanor got in touch with Culture Perth and Kinross officials to offer an inspirational installation.
Fun Makes Good’s portfolio includes bold and bright homeware products, bespoke textile and upholstery commissions as well as large scale pieces for restaurants in London and Edinburgh. But the Perth venture is a new strand, as it was its first ever public art project.
Eleanor explained: “It was as though the museum was hidden in plain sight.
“This sparked an idea that led to Fun Makes Good contacting Helen Smout with a proposal to create a series of striking artworks to amplify the building facade and help bring it further into the public eye.
“As it happened, the timing coincided perfectly with the creation of Culture Perth and Kinross and over a series of meetings a brief was developed for the project, which expanded to include both the Perth Museum and Art Gallery and the AK Bell Library.
The brief was to make people view cultural buildings afresh, make the two city centre venues more noticeable, and challenge the austere facades with fun, colourful, eye catching banners that give a flavour of what people will find inside the buildings, their services and collections.
It also challenged FMG to engage the local community in the project, which was successfully achieved through a series of paper craft workshops held by FMG earlier this year.
The final banner designs incorporate elements from the collage workshops as well as motifs inspired by pieces held within the galleries and archives such as Viking archeology, taxidermy birds, glassware, local maps and ancient family trees.
The AK Bell Banners were installed at the beginning of July with the museum banners installed in August.
The AK Bell Library banners promote the children’s library, lending library facilities and the local and family history archives whilst the PMAG banners promote the natural history collection, art gallery, its social history exhibitions, and its events, workshops, classes and talks.
Eleanor added: “FMG was delighted that the banners became a colourful backdrop for the City of Culture launch and win or lose we hope that Perth’s bid process will highlight the many great creatives, small businesses and cultural activities throughout Perth and Kinross and helps to support and promote them in the future.”