Spring clean and repair for public art in Glenrothes

Members of Glenrothes area committee have committed £10,000 to the maintenance and repair programme for 71 of the town’s muched loved art works in the coming months.

The last major maintenance project on Glenrothes Town Art was carried out around five years ago, which resulted in some of the works being relocated from precincts to more visible locations.

The new initiative follows a recent survey carried out by Fife Council’s parks, streets and open spaces department, which regularly inspect more than 150 artworks across the town.

In a report the councillors, Damien Woods, service manager, said: “If the required works are not carried out, the condition of the Town Art pieces will deteriorate further and may in some cases become structurally unsound and require removal in the future.”

The Henge, Hippos and Ginat Eagle in Pitteuchar, The Dream in Auchmuty, Queensway Underpass and The Giant Irises, are all to be given some much needed attention.

The town’s war memorial, which was installed in 2007 following a public campaign after the death in Iraq in 2004 of two soldiers from Glenrothes, is also to be jet washed.

A number of artworks have also ben earmaked for for an artistic makeover.

The giant UFOs in Stenton and Riverside Park are to be painted flourescent yellow, while EastField Column is to be given a brick red covering.

The town has a rich history with public art dating back to the earliest development of the town in the early 1060s.

The first sculpture erected in Glenrothes was ‘Ex Terra’, created by Benno Schotz, while Edinburgh-based sculptor Ronald Rae created ‘The Good Samaritan’ sculpture in Riverside Park for the town’s 40th anniversary.

And the New Town of Glenrothes became the first town in the UK to have its own dedicated artist in residence when Glenrothes Development Corporation appointed David Harding in 1968.

During the next 10 years, until his departure in 1978, he produced a diverse and thought-provoking collection of art, much of which was positioned in precincts and estates, rather than public highways and more traditional sites normally expected of public art.

Malcolm Robertson took over in 1978 and carried on the ethos of town art until 1991.