2009 is the 250th anniversary or the birth of Scotland's our national poet Robert Burns and the Scottish Government has initiated a year long series of events in celebration called Homecoming Scotland 2009. Graeme Murdoch and Harry McGrath are organising a project called 'This who we are' which is linking communities in Scotland and in Canada through photography with a particular emphasis on places that have the same name or places with a strong affinity to Scotland.
They are asking people who live in same-name (Hamilton, Carstairs, N Dumfries, Kincardine) or affinity communities (Find Scotland in Toronto) to tell the biographical story of their home town through digital photography and send the photographs they collect to them. They will be exhibiting the best images around Scotland in 2009 starting on Burns Night in January. The images can been taken now or over the last year or so.
They have prepared a photographic diary to give an idea of the work they have already done in Nova Scotia, Alberta and British Columbia. Documentary, quirky, fun, dramatic, informing images are what they are looking for. Artistic images too, if they have a locus in your community or have a trace of Scottishness. There are over half a million people in Toronto who claim to be Scots Canadians and nearly 2 million in the whole of Ontario.
They plan to be in Ontario early in the new year but there is some urgency to this now as the first exhibition is taking place in January and the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond MSP will be there in Dumfries on the opening night.
Go to website www.culturalconnectscotland.com to find out more about the
project.
(Lo-res) photos may be sent to graeme@culturalconnectscotland.com
To see the first round of photos, click on this link:
www.standrews-society.ca/pdf/ball/Canadian%20Diary.pdf
