Fundraising event for the Marc Marnie Photographic Archive
Anyone involved in Scottish performing or literary arts over the last 50 years may be aware of the work of photographer Marc Marnie.
He writes: “Between 1977 and 2004 I took over 350,000 photographs.
“These images represent a large part of Scotland’s music, theatre and literary culture, tracking the history and development of people, companies, venues & organisations.
“In 2021 my store room was destroyed by a flood, causing over £26,000 of uninsured losses.
By some extraordinary good luck nearly all the negatives survived.
I realised that unless they are digitised in my lifetime they will be lost forever.
“I am applying to Creative Scotland and Heritage Scotland for the necessary support to launch a huge two year project digitising and metadata-tagging the negatives to create a unique archive, available to students and others. This funding is separate and presently unsecured.
“Go Fund Me sponsorship will be used as seed funding to publish supporting merchandise: cards, calendars, an exhibition and the first of a series of books.
“Now, more than ever, the arts in Scotland are struggling to survive.
Everything is in flux, venues and artists are under threat, our undervalued creative world is actually under attack.
I believe it is imperative that we preserve our history for the benefit of students and, actually, everyone else as well.
“This archive is a valuable resource that must not be lost.”
A fundraising gig in support of the Marnie Archive takes place at Edinburgh’s Stramash venue, from 7 pm on Friday 21st February. The bill includes the Deke McGee Band, Dean Owens & Kirsten Adamson, Liz Jones & Brken Windows, and Breadline with Mike Breen. Tickets £20, from Buy tickets – Marc Marnie Archive Aid – Stramash
