25 YEARS ON SCOTLAND’S MURALS TRAIL

Why Murals at all?

Their inauguration in Prestonpans in 2001 was the result of a chance Prestoungrange holiday encounter on Vancouver Island in Canada. There, a small mid-island post-industrial community at Chemainus, a former timber mill town, had made a big name for itself attracting tens of thousands of visitors to see its heritage stories told out in murals. Chemainus had taken a further step up by adding an Arts Theatre to its internationally acclaimed murals trail which  in 2000 just happened to be performing ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’.  Long on the wish list of Avril Prestoungrange the family were destined to visit and make that chance encounter with Karl Schutz, the originator of the Chemainus murals [1].

Chemainus’ predicament when its timber mill closed was a microcosm of where Prestonpans stood at the end of the 20 th century when all our industrial and agricultural industries had gone. Theatre coffee shop discussions ended with an invitation for Karl Shutz to visit Prestonpans and explore whether the murals strategy might be good for The Pans.

Prestonpans was scarcely short of heritage stories; it had been a centre of industrial activity for nigh on a thousand years, much increasingly researched and recorded [2][3]. Karl shared the Chemainus story at an open meeting at Prestongrange House for both early believers and cynics. The cynics predicted vandalism, doubted planning consents would be forthcoming and knew caring and maintenance would be an everlasting challenge. The  believers had either been engaged in the early researches or had a track record of murals or theatrical scenery painting. Karl’s response was simple: if you stick to heritage murals all will be well. There will be no vandalism. But, Karl added, you don’t have to believe just our  Chemainus outcomes; there are some 40+ other communities around North America and in Australia and New Zealand who have joined in a Global Association with biennial congresses. Go visit them and see how they survived the collapse of their industrial economies and how they’ve deployed murals arts to ensure they flourished again. Murals don’t just attract visitors although of course they do; heritage murals reinforce and rebuild community self-esteem [4].

“It all starts with the murals”

Heritage murals globally have also consistently created so much artistic energy in their communities that all manner of heritage assets are restored, re-emerge or are created anew. Chemainus Arts Theatre was matched by the annual show Swamp Gravy in Colquitt Georgia’s peanut farmlands,  a Dutch windmill was built in Foxton New Zealand, a Visitors’ Brothel Experience and Rodeo followed former aluminium smelting for Ely Nevada, Annual Murals Competitions developed in Sheffield Tasmania, Open Air Desert Concerts arrived in 29Palms California … and in Prestonpans? Myriad initiatives followed from  restoration of The Gothenburg with its Fowler’s microbrewery, the re-opening of Cuthill Park, restoration and engagement aplenty at Preston Tower, Prestonpans Town Hall and the 1722 Waggonway, yet more restoration for Civic Memorial Square and Prestongrange Heritage Museum with its Beam and Works Engines, Brickworks and BathHouse, prodigious campaigning from the 1745 Battle Trust, the creation of two extraordinary tapestries by the Arts Festival that have attracted over a million visitors, toured the globe with one particularly invited to Bayeux and Brittany, and indeed triggered a heritage tapestry making renaissance across the nation.  In 2006 130 visitors from the Global Association Karl Schutz had established congressed in Prestonpans, declaring us to be ‘Scotland’s Murals Town’ unveiling our Chemainus donated Pans carved Totem Pole [6].

Our archive in two strands

As we pause to reflect, to restore and refresh our murals that have lasted, never vandalised, on our walls for 25 years, we link below to two strands in our digital archive from the Arts Festival NewsNet postings since 2000. The first traces the exemplar communities we visited around the globe and the Conferences/ Congresses we shared; the second the sequential creation of our artworks here in Prestonpans.  Both strands are inevitably uneven but they regularly reflect the excitement and artistic achievement. The opportunity to take any element further in today’s digital age abound for those who so wish.

And Yes, there is a third strand to our archive  … the murals that are no longer with us! Lost to adverse conditions howsoever, and on occasion reinterpreted.