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In setting out to commission artists, SNH was looking for individuals who could provide a personal response to special places. At Knockan we worked with the principal interpretation contractor to draw up a brief that focused initially on the need for an appropriate structure to locate on top of the crag.
The brief (see Annex A) was short and to the point. We wanted to introduce a bold and simple crag top 'target' destination that would provide visitors with a natural place to stop and admire the magnificent views over the surrounding mountain panorama. The brief underlined the need for the design to be sensitive to the landscape, whilst also being both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
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It
proved much easier to draw up the brief than to find anyone to fulfil
it. The sort of art installations we had in mind involved permanent
features in the landscape. Given the scenic qualities of Knockan
Crag, we knew the installations could be highly controversial and
could end up drawing attention away from the messages we were trying
to get across about the site. |
| Monolith
at Knockan Crag by Joe Smith |
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Project team members made a determined effort to find artists who might be interested in this sort of work and who might have the necessary ideas and skills. Magazines, newspapers, websites and word-of-mouth offered up names of people to contact. We were keen to source artists who would happily work along with the project team to develop the installations, without feeling their art was being compromised. Eventually, we came up with a group of four potential contractors and invited them up to Knockan to see the reserve and discuss the project.
Each of the artists was offered a fee of some £200 to travel to site and come up with ideas, although this would be waived if they were awarded a contract. We asked each of them to submit proposals for all of the locations where we saw art having a significant role. This produced a substantial range of options from which we were able to choose a selection of projects to commission.
There are of course various ways to choose artists but we found that this form of limited competition amongst a small group of invited artists worked well. Indeed, the experience and feedback from Knockan persuaded us to adopt the same policy at Beinn Eighe. The artists also seemed enthusiastic about the approach as it allowed them to engage creatively in the process from the outset.
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artists we contracted to undertake the work across the two sites were:
Susheila Jamieson of Broughton in Peebleshire; Nigel Ross from Blairgowrie
in Perthshire; Frances Pelly of Rendall in Orkney; and Joe Smith and
James Buchanan from Crocketford and Caerlaverock respectively in Dumfries-shire.
All costs for this work were met from core interpretation funding,
as we could not source grants from relevant bodies like the Scottish
Arts Council because of regulations that bar double funding from National
Lottery assisted finances The over-riding lesson we learnt from the process of seeking, recruiting and working with artists is that it takes a lot longer than you might expect. The process of sourcing artists can take months if you do not have a clear idea of what you want and who you are going to approach. |
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Ripples
of oak at Beinn Eighe |
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The
various works now installed at Knockan Crag and Beinn Eighe show the different
ways in which art can perform a key interpretive role. It has the ability
to:
Each of these points is expanded upon below with examples drawn from the two reserves. The examples have thumbnail images alongside; you can enlarge the images by clicking on them once.
