Creetown bell is unveiled
Pupils from Creetown Primary School braved the winter weather this week to help artists from the Stove collective unveil a new sculpture for the village.
The Creetown Ferry Bell Tower, which is situated on the edge of the village, reaches 10 metres high and signposts the eastern end of the village.
The sculpture is the culmination of a year of creative work within the community by the Stove, which has included flag workshops and a bell-casting session.
A competition to find a new town crier was also held last year and the winner, nine-year-old Evie Cloy, was there on Tuesday having been granted the privilege of being the first person to ring the new bell.
“This is one of the most exciting public sculptures I have ever been involved with,” said Will Levi Marshall, the lead artist on the project. “The Ferry Bell Tower has grown from a rich and diverse range of community projects and has taken shape from the input of residents and from the history and traditions of the village, rather than being imposed on the landscape.”
The project was commissioned by Creetown Initiative with prize money from the Creative Places award which the village won in 2012, along with a grant from D&GLEADER.
“The bell tower is the newest edition to the village’s growing collection of internationally renowned artworks,” said Andrew Ward, senior project manager with Creetown Initiative. “Along with five other major pieces, including Hideo Furuta’s Adamson Square and Alex Rigg’s Creebaby, Creetown has been building a reputation as a destination for sculpture attacting visitors from across the country.”
The Stove is an artists’ collective based in Dumfries, which works across Dumfries and Galloway on public art projects that engage the local population in the future of their communities.