Rockfield project in £9,400 windfall

OBAN Communities Trust has received a Heritage Lottery Fund grant for a project – Journey to the little bay – An t- Òban - based at the Rockfield Centre.

The project has been given £9,400 to start a cultural heritage project which will enable the centre’s heritage volunteers to build on their research and oral recording skills but also be supported to engage others and share local heritage in new ways for everyone to enjoy.

Volunteer Mhairi Ross said: ‘This is fantastic news for our Heritage Hunters group. It will enable us to build on our archive of oral recordings of the social history or our town.

‘We love where we live and know there are so many gems to discover about our past. This project will enable us to share our heritage and history with a wide audience.’

This project is part of Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology.

The Rockfield Centre is one of the Tesco’s Bags of Help charities now in store at the Oban and Lochgilphead branches.

Bags of Help is Tesco’s community grant scheme where money raised from the five pence bag charge is being used to fund thousands of projects in communities across the UK.

This is a public vote whereby tokens are slotted into the charities’ box and has been an amazing fundraiser for a wide range of community projects.

With seven weeks for people to vote with their bag tokens, Oban Communities Trust is encouraging everyone to support the Rockfield Centre.

Oban open art exhibition showcasing local creativity was held last weekend at the Rockfield Centre.

This second open art exhibition featured 40 local artists and welcomed 250 visitors over the weekend, with more than £400 raised for the Rockfield Centre.

Next date for the Oban fiddle workshops is May 20 from 2pm to 4pm at the community huts. If you don’t have a fiddle and would like to play, email Rhona on arts@therockfieldcentre.org.uk.

Let’s Make a Scene will next take place on May 26 with an open mic night for new music and spoken word performance regulars and new performers.

A small PA, three mics, an electro-acoustic guitar and a stage piano are there to use or if performers prefer they can bring their own instruments and play acoustically.