Glasgow’s Irish community will know what their long-awaited memorial to the Great Hunger will look like by this summer, after the details of a design competition were announced by the Coiste Cuimhneachain An Gorta Mór (Great Hunger Memorial Committee)
With the production of an initial Project Brief in association with Creative Scotland the committee will now be able to attract the interest of some of the brightest artists in Scotland today, and use their talents to arrive at the final design for the memorial.
This Project Brief now allows the committee to plan ahead for the next few months, and having drawn on the experience of community figures who have worked on similar such projects in the past as well as working with Fr Tom White, parish priest of St Mary’s, Calton – where the memorial will be sited – it is now expect that by May or June a final design can be unveiled.
Artists interested in submitting design ideas for the competition will be expected to provide a statement of intent with regards approach to the commission and engagement with the community, some photographs of previous work and a CV which should provide evidence of the ability to bring the project to completion by February 16.
Full details can be found here
Speaking of the next stage of the process, the committee explained, “From these applications a short list of 6 will be invited to interview to present their approach to the brief concept and community engagement, and from these interviews, three will be chosen.
“The chosen three artists will be asked to produce a fully specified and costed monument design, a model of the design, and full details of timescale and all necessary instructions and details regarding groundworks and installation. The models produced will be owned by the Committee.
“The payment for this work will be £2000 each. The designs and other materials specified must be delivered by 27th April 2018. The winning design will be announced at a gala fundraising event in May/June (the precise date of which is to be arranged).”
You can read full details of the ambitious plans from the Coiste Cuimhneachain An Gorta Mór in the January edition of The Irish Voice, out next week.
