Muriel Spark statue – open competition launched to appoint the artist

An open competition is being launched on Wednesday at noon to choose the artist or artists who will design the statue to commemorate author Dame Muriel Spark.

The “long overdue” memorial will be placed in a quiet spot in East Princes Street Gardens, south of the railway line, and will be the first statue of a woman there. The artistic objective is to create a permanent legacy which will “reflect the unique spirit and character of Spark”.

The group behind the project, Spirit of Spark, say this will address the historical absence of women commemorated in the gardens with a memorial.

Philanthropists Morag and James Anderson will commission and fund the project to celebrate the life and work of the author who is synonymous with Edinburgh. The City of Edinburgh Council approved plans in principle to site a statue in the gardens earlier this year and entries open on 19 November at noon.

Sir Ian Rankin said: “Muriel Spark was one of the 20th century’s finest novelists. She also captured the very essence of Edinburgh, her birthplace, in her best-known story, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Just as Edinburgh can seem like a Tardis – bigger on the inside than the outside – so Muriel Spark’s slender works contain a vastness of riches. She can be satirical and profound, experimental in style and yet with storytelling skills shaped by tradition. She continues to fascinate, entertain and confound. It is wonderful that her impact and legacy are to be memorialised in Princes Street Gardens – the first woman to be celebrated in this way. The crème de la crème indeed!”

Dame Muriel once said: “Art is an act of daring.” It is this sentiment which is at the heart of the three stage competition.

Backing for the project

Dame Muriel’s companion Penelope Jardine has given her backing to the memorial which will be created two decades after the author’s death. She said: “The project is a wonderfully creative and exciting idea, and I hope there is an inspired artist up to the challenge.”

Muriel Spark wrote 22 novels during her career. These included The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie which was made into an Oscar winning film starring Maggie Smith in the title role. It is perhaps the book that she is best known for but not her only work.

Alan Taylor is founding editor of The Scottish Review of Books and author of Appointment in Arezzo: A friendship with Muriel Spark. He said: “Muriel Spark is not only the greatest Scottish novelist of the second half of the twentieth century, she is one of the world’s greatest writers. She may be best known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie but that is only one amongst many of her books that deserves to be read and re-read.”

Muriel Spark born in Bruntsfield

Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh in 1918 and is regarded as one of the most internationally impactful Scottish writers of the 20th century. She was born in Edinburgh and attended school here. As well as novels she also wrote poetry, biographies, essays, plays and short stories. She left Edinburgh as a young woman, but her experiences at James Gillespie’s School in the capital are said to be key to her writing. Spark won the Water Scott prize for poetry at the age of 12.

She was made a Dame in the 1993 Honours list for services to literature. While there is no permanent legacy to her in Edinburgh, her archives are held in the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge.

Centenary of Spark’s birth

In 2018 during the centenary of Dame Muriel’s birth copies of her novels were given to every public library in Scotland. In Edinburgh The Rt Hon Lord Provost Frank Ross donated copies of her 22 novels to every high school library in the city.

The Lord Provost said at the time: “Muriel Spark remains one of Edinburgh’s greatest literary exports and I remember reading her novels when I was younger. Her characters and stories remain with me to this day as does a real joy of reading.

“To mark the centenary of her birth, I think every child in the Capital should have the opportunity to discover her work. She is, after all, one of the greatest writers to come out of our city! Her books will line library shelves at every secondary school so that future generations can grow up with her writing too.”

The exact location where the statue will be placed is at 55.95099, -3.192498 which translates in the what3words app to ///pardon.roses.gifts and it is on an axis with the Scott Monument.

There is a 200 feet high memorial to Sir Walter Scott in East Princes Street Gardens (the largest monument to any writer in the world) and a more modest memorial stone to Robert Louis Stevenson in West Princes Street Gardens.

Artistic competition – a staged process

Stage One of the process is for artists working in any discipline with at least three years experience as a working artist to apply. Collaborations are also invited. A shortlist of up to four artists will be drawn up by the Judging Panel which comprises Morag Anderson, Susanna Beaumont, Juliet Dean, Malcolm Fraser, Penelope Jardine, Jackie Kay and Celeste Macleod-Brown. The artists on the shortlist will receive a fee, as will the artist selected to prepare the detailed design.

In addition £100,000 including VAT is available for creating the artwork, and the Commissioners, Morag and James Anderson, will pay to maintain the statue for a “significant period”.

At Stage Two the artists will create a concept proposal and the Judging Panel will decide on the winner. That artist will progress to detailed design. The council will be asked to approve detailed planning permission when the design is finalised.

Entries may be made online here from 19 November, and there is a strict timetable laid down in the document copied below. Entries must be submitted by 11.59pm on 11 January 2026.

It is likely that a detailed design will be produced by September 2026 and the statue might be installed by October 2027.

Enquiries may be made to [email protected]