Chain reaction
PROVOST DREW MCKENZIE WRITES EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE TELE
ACCLAIMED American write Kurt Vonnegut once said ‘I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the centre’.
What Kurt, pictured, might have went on to point out was that out there on the edge were all the artists.
That the edge can be that most interesting of places, where the angles change – where the light differs – where the lyrics tangle with the tune – where the violinist has closed their eyes – where the brush strokes leave a lasting impression – and words, phrases and expressions rise from the page.
Inverclyde does art well.
That’s not the usual headline for this place at all, but look around you though.
I don’t mean the big public art stuff – not those big sculptures that we could have fixed a thousand potholes with the money spent on them – though we’ve managed to grow slowly affectionate towards them anyway. No, I mean all the other stuff.
The weans in the library with the Bookbug. The Burns Club working with the schools. The art clubs. The writer’s groups. The speaker’s club. Rig Arts with Galoshans and a hundred other things, and they’re lighting up a glen too! The music scene. The choirs. Dancers. The drama groups. Philosophical and historical talks. The Watt Institution. The Beacon. George Wyllie. Alec Galloway. Alison Watt. Her dad. The Ship. The Big Picnic. The Festival in January. And that’s just scratching the surface. And folk say there’s nothing to do about here!
Last week Gourock Rotary held a competition – well it was actually five competitions – for young people. There was art (as in painting), photography, instrumental music, vocalists, and a prize for community involvement. On the night it was the music and singing that took centre stage – presented as a show – and the standard was just so impressive – not in patronising impressive, but more of a ‘what did I just witness there’ impressive.
The Rotary Club are to be congratulated in arranging to showcase such up and coming talent and giving those of us that were there the real privilege of witnessing something rather special.
The arts, for some, can of course be a route from poverty – a bit the same way as football – courage of expression may find you an audience – but was it not Vonnegut again who said that you should go and write a poem, six lines, do it as good as you can, make it rhyme, and once it is finished don’t show it to anyone or even recite it to your nearest and dearest, but rather rip it up into lots of tiny pieces and put it in widely scattered bins.
You will find you have been gloriously rewarded for that poem, you will have experienced becoming, learned a lot about what’s inside you and you will have made your soul grow.
Life can be close to the edge in Inverclyde. Our arts are flourishing. Go and write that poem!