COAST Festival of the visual arts officially opened at Banff Castle 22nd May 2009.  The opening ceremony was opened by the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond who is also the MP for Banff and Buchan.

In the grounds of  Banff Castle is a sculpture by Rob Mulholland (See photo)  However the First Minister told Stanley Bruce that it was our 'Peter Anson Sculpture' that everyone was talking about, and if we'd been approached we would have been very happy to erect it in the grounds of Banff Castle for the weekend.

To see our sculpture click on http://www.webhistorian.co.uk/pages/index.php?id=138

 

At the opening ceremony of COAST at Banff Castle two young lads played the pipes for about 30 minutes which was amazing for these young guys, and they certainly seemed to be enjoying it!

The old Glazing Services building at the Greenbanks has been wrapped with a large mural which looks like seagulls but is said to be gannets, the beaks do look like gannet beaks but the bodies look like seagulls.  Anyway the wrap looks great, and the artwork was that of Gabrielle Reith and we're all very grateful that she did this piece of artwork for the festival for free, well done Gabrielle!

For the second year of this Festival Macduff Town Hall is the venue for a wide variety of artists.  Paintings oil and water-colour, and photography are the majority of the content, however some pottery and other arts are also on show.

Although not mentioned in the COAST brochure the Banff and Macduff Community Trust are holding a photograph exhibition in the Bridge Street Community Centre.  The idea behind the photography is for community groups to indicate what they think is good and not so good in the community.  Many groups have participated including the Banffshire Maritime and Heritage Association.  It was interesting to see that two of the youth groups had photographed our previous premises in 6 to 8 Duff Street, which is now boarded-up.  We didn't like not renewing the lease on this premises but we didn't get enough support from the community or the council or the local councillors to keep it going.  And it's also worth noting that we didn't see that many young people actually come to visit us!  Perhaps it's a bit of now that it's gone - it's missed, but it wasn't fully appreciated when it was here.

Standing on the sea wall at the Greenbanks is a lone figure made of rusty steel by Rob Mulholland.

Inside the Temple of Venus on top of Doune Hill is a statue of Venus made by the pupils of Macduff Primary School.  When this temple was originally built a statue of Venus stood inside it.  So well done to Macduff Primary School for the great idea!  Perhaps this will inspire someone to make a permanent sculpture for here, and imagine what it would look like with a light shining down on it at night!

This creation is a collage of photographs taken by the children of Scooby's after-school club.  The photographs are of Banff Primary, Duff House, Wrack Woods, the Deveron River and the Sky.  Created as part of 'Contours' community engagement project.