David Harding
dgaharding@hotmail.com
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Introduction
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About Public Art Index
  View Public Art Index
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5-YEAR DRIVE-BY
Douglas Gordon in 29 Palms.
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MEANWHILE ARTIST
Recalling the work of Jamie McCullough.
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THE SCOTIA NOSTRA
Socialisation and Glasgow artists
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PUBLIC ART IN THE BRITISH NEW TOWNS
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MEMORIES AND VAGARIES
The development of social art practices in Scotland.
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MACLOVIO ROJAS
Social sculpture in Tijuana.
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Public Art - Contentious Term and Contested Practice
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Art and Social Context
Contextual art practice in education.
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VENICE VERNISSAGE - 2003
A visit to the biennale.
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MULTI-STORY
Art and asylum seekers.
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• CULTURAL DEMOCRACY Ð CRAIGMILLAR STYLE
30 years of the arts in an Edinburgh housing estate.
 • Page 2
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A SEA WITHOUT BOATS*
A visit to Havana 2005.
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GLENROTHES TOWN ARTIST 1968-78*
Chapter 6 of memoir.
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PASSAGES*
a suicide, a monument, a film
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This essay was commissioned for the catalogue of the exhibition, 'Arts: The Catalyst - Craigmillar' at the City Arts Centre, Edinburgh. October 2004

CULTURAL DEMOCRACY - CRAIGMILLAR STYLE

There is an annual summer festival of music and drama with parades and a pageant at the castle. It takes place in Edinburgh but it's not the one that is internationally famous though this one did create international interest. No, this one takes place in Craigmillar, a housing estate, often described as one of the worst areas of multiple deprivation in Scotland. This exhibition affords the opportunity to look back at an extraordinary story.

Looking back is important. Bertold Brecht advised, never go forward until you first go back to check the direction. The widespread tokenism of the government's policy of social inclusion, coupled with an often cynical 'tick the boxes' attitude of some arts institutions and professionals, has discredited an already suspect notion. It was always an ameliorating 'top down' policy with not much ever percolating from the 'bottom up' and totally at odds with the notion that the socially excluded may have something worthwhile to express about culture. It was of course Paolo Friere who advised us long ago not to impose our culture on the socially excluded but to enter into a dialogue with them about their view AND ours. Governments never seem to learn. They only ever seem to be interested in the new big idea and its slogan. Scottish Ministers would have achieved more if they had ignored the New Labour policy of social inclusion and taken the two-mile trip east to Craigmillar. Here in the sixties and seventies evolved a model for using the arts as a catalyst for social inclusion and progress which gained international fame. It was to here that planners, sociologists, community workers, artists and politicians, along with the great and the good, beat a path from all over the world to witness this 'miracle', to learn from it and to apply it back home.

So how come we did not learn from it? How come that it is almost forgotten? There is not the space here to attempt to analyse and present the reasons for this dereliction but two points spring to mind. The biblical, 'can anything good come out of Nazareth?', would surely be one but the other is more dangerous and it is this. Politicians and civil servants at the centre of power actually fear it when people rise up and take power for themselves. For this is what happened in Craigmillar. With the help of the local MP and the local city councillors, Craigmillar Festival Society became a strong political force exerting some control over planning, building, social and cultural development decisions. In 1976 it bypassed the then Scottish Office and went straight to the EC and won poverty action funding of £750, 000. At its high point it was responsible for initiating and running fifty seven neighbourhood projects and employed 200 full-time and 500 part-time workers in works ranging from landscaping, play area development, theatre and art works, play groups, social work and community development, and support. What the Festival Society could not do however was to bring well paid, long-term employment to Craigmillar. It was not equipped, and did not have the power, to do so.

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David Harding 2005 [Link to Pixelville. Services include design, photography, multimedia and Internet applications, website  development and maintenance.]
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