A wealth of inspiration
The committee of the new Adam Smith Foundation on the steps of the Old Kirk where he was baptised
KIRKCALDY is set to reclaim its birthright to the town’s most famous son with the launch of The Adam Smith Global Foundation.
The charitable foundation has ambitious plans to benefit the town and its wider communities through initiatives designed to attract funding for key regeneration projects.
And its charitable initiatives will provide funding to help develop the areas of sport, music and culture and international development.
The Foundation’s international launch is due to take place on August 7 with a dinner at Adam Smith College, attended by some of the world’s leading authorities on the life and work of Adam Smith, the father of modern economics - the first event leading up to the first Adam Smith Festival in 2014 .
On August 7 and 8 academics from across the UK, USA, , Europe and Latin America will take part in a colloquium delivering public lectures and discussions at the Old Kirk.
Speakers
Debate will concentrate on Smith’s life in the town, his influence abroad over the centuries and look at efforts underway across Scotland to commemorate his legacy.
Amongst the eminent speakers at the event are organiser of the academic symposium Fonna Forman, associate professor of political science at the University of California and editor of the Adam Smith Review; Nobel Prize in Economics recipient, Vernon L Smith; Gavin Kennedy, emeritius professor at Heriot Watt University; Iain McLean, professor of politics at Oxford University and local historian and Adam Smith Global Foundation Trustee, George Proudfoot.
The Foundation, which will be run by a committee chaired by Kirkcaldy-born Michael Levack, who has many years experience in the construction industry, and headed by Marilyn Livingstone, former Kirkcaldy MSP, aims to harness this knowledge from leading experts to enhance its efforts to attract both public and private funding to the town.
Museum
Projects already underway through the Foundation’s Birthplace Initiative, include the setting up of a museum charting the life and works of Adam Smith, and the story of how he chose to come home to pen ‘The Wealth of Nations.’
This will lead on to a Heritage Trail and future plans to develop a Merchants Quarter in the east end of the town.
Gordon Brown MP and chancellor of Adam Smith College, said: “I welcome this great new venture that puts Kirkcaldy in its rightful place at the centre of some of the great new thinking of the last few centuries.
Lecture
‘‘Not only was Adam Smith a resident of Kirkcaldy when he wrote these major books but the influence of what he learned in Kirkcaldy helped shaped the next two and a half centuries.”
This year’s Adam Smith Lecture will be delivered by Sir James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank Group Sir James will deliver his lecture, ‘A Turbulent World’, to an audience of invited guests and members of the general public on August 8 in St Bryce Kirk, Kirkcaldy.
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Weather for Kirkcaldy
Sunday 26 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 8 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: South
