Richard Demarco to be awarded the Edinburgh Medal – Twitter Q & A with Councillor Child – EdinburghReportage – South Queensferry High Street closed today – Our Dynamic Earth
Renowned art advocate and co-founder of Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre Richard Demarco is to receive the seventh annual Edinburgh Award.
The artist and art entrepreneur, who was awarded European Citizen of the Year in August, is represented in more than 2500 art collections and has been recognised on many occasions for promoting cultural links throughout Europe.
Professor Demarco will be presented with the engraved Loving Cup, which has previously been awarded to Professor Peter Higgs and cyclist Chris Hoy, at a ceremony this evening at the City Chambers.
He will also have a mould of his hands taken and engraved into a permanent flagstone in the City Chambers quadrangle.
Lord Provost Donald Wilson said: “I am delighted to be able present this year’s award to Richard Demarco, whose tireless work to promote and present art from around the globe has doubtlessly enriched the Scottish art scene.
“The Edinburgh Award is a chance to honour an outstanding individual who has made an impact on the city and Professor Demarco is a most deserving recipient.”
Born in 1930 to an Italian-Irish family in Edinburgh, Professor Demarco went on to co-found The Richard Demarco Gallery in 1966 before establishing the Demarco European Art Foundation.
Appointed Commander of The British Empire (CBE) in 2007 the 83-year old, who has organised hundreds of exhibitions, plays, conferences and performances involving artists and academics from nations around the world, has been praised for his internationalism, and counts the Romanian and German Orders of Merit and the Gold ‘Gloria Artis’ Medal of Poland amongst his previous accolades.
Over the last 50 years Professor Demarco has built up an extensive collection of modern art featuring work by some of the most important figures in 20th century art and more than one million photographs.
He has also enjoyed a long relationship with Edinburgh’s festivals, having attended every Edinburgh Festival since its inception in 1947, and was appointed Director of Edinburgh Festival Contemporary Art exhibition programme in 1967.
In 2010 The Royal Scottish Academy celebrated his 80th birthday with a one-man exhibition entitled ‘A Life in Pictures’ which was presented at The Royal Scottish Academy along with the major exhibition ‘Ten Dialogues: Richard Demarco – Scotland and the European Avant-garde’.
Professor Demarco said: “I regard this award as an honouring of all the artists and art patrons who collaborated with me to develop a cultural dialogue between Scotland and the international art world.
“I feel deeply honoured but I am conscious of the countless numbers of all those who have helped me and who share my belief that Edinburgh is a nodal point on the cultural map of the world.”
The decision to award Professor Demarco, who was nominated for the award by Edinburgh citizens, was taken by a judging panel chaired by the Lord Provost Donald Wilson, with representatives from all political groups on the City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council and Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.
First launched in 2007, the Award is a way for Edinburgh citizens to pay a lasting tribute to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the city through their achievements.
Previous winners of the award are: Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Ian Rankin, JK Rowling, Sir Chris Hoy, George Kerr CBE and Professor Peter Higgs.
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Tomorrow lunchtime there will be a Twitter Q and A and you can join in by sending questions ahead of the event.
The Neighbourhood Partnerships (NPs) twitter account, @Edin_NPs, was launched on Monday 13 January 2014. Since the first tweet, they have amassed over 150 followers. Recently, the account has been used to live tweet from both the Community Council induction event, and £eith Decides.
To continue to engage online Councillor Child and @Edin_NPs are hosting a live question and answer session on Tuesday 25 March 2014, 12noon – 1pm. The session is your opportunity to ask your questions about NPs, give your thoughts and suggestions and find out how you can get involved in your neighbourhood transformation.
You can send your questions in advance by emailing neighbourhood.partnerships@edinburgh.gov.uk or tweet them to @Edin_NPs with #askNPs
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Come on all you allotment holders, you must be doing some tidying up on your patch by now….. Share your photos with us over here.
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The High Street in South Queensferry will be closed to through traffic from 8am today until 4pm on Wednesday. This is to allow road surface repairs along a 30 metre stretch east of the museum. A diversion will be signed via the low bridge on Station Rd. Access for pedestrians and emergency vehicles will be maintained. Towed cars can be recovered by calling 101.
Other roadworks in and around Edinburgh are listed here.
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Our Dynamic Earth is undergoing a bit of a facelift at the moment.
THIS EASTER, DYNAMIC EARTH IS UNDERGOING A £1MILLION REDEVELOPMENT TO THE BEGINNING OF THE EXPERIENCE.
There are currently exciting works going on at Dynamic Earth throughout the tour which are due to be unveiled in April 2014. During this time some disruption to the tour will occur and you will be unable to visit the first three areas which includes the time machine
To make up for this we are offering you the opportunity to see an extra Dome Film for free.
We are currently showing 3 films We are Aliens, Natural Selection and on Saturday and Sunday at 10.30am only, Dinosaurs at Dusk.
To ensure you have time to make the most of this opportunity and to have a choice of films it is recommended that you arrive before 3.30pm.
More details on the ODE website.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
