CULTURE ON THE CAMPUS CELEBRATES STIRLING’S HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL LINKS

25 Feb

The Culture on Campus programme which includes has had an incredible year celebrating all that makes Stirling distinctive with a diverse range of local, international and thematic events, exhibitions and opportunties that celebrate Stirling’s place in the world. With a range of partners including Macrobert Arts Centre, the Art Collection at the University of Stirling and the International and Partnerships team. This included:

Culture on Campus: Stirling - 900 years of the burgh of Stirling

Mon, 27th January - Mon, 19th May at Macrobert Arts Centre

James V (Stirling Heads) by Willie Rodger

To celebrate the 900th anniversary since Stirling was founded as a Royal Burgh this exhibition features artwork and archival material from the University Archives and Art Collection which celebrate the history of the town and its cultural heritage. 

Strivelin, Striveling, Strivelyn, Strewelin, Sterling, Sruighlea, Stirling is the annual exhibition from the Culture on Campus initiative, which is a collaborative project between the Art Collection, University Archives and the Macrobert Arts Centre to develop a creative environment where creative thinking and creative acts are at the heart of our identity as a place of learning.

Learn more

Dogs Without Names being opened by the Consul General of Japan

Japanese Film Festival

The University of Stirling and the Consulate General of Japan hosted an evening for both film and dog lovers alike on Wednesday 26 February in Pathfoot Lecture Theatre.

The film ‘Dogs without names’ is an inspirational story of a filmmaker who decides to channel her grief over her deceased golden retriever into making a documentary about people who rescue dogs and cats 'without names' - meaning with no one to care for them. She works with organisations who rescue dogs and cats from being euthanized and sees anew the power of our bonds with these animals and our responsibilities should we opt to care for them.

The evening was opened by the Consul General of Japan and the film introduced by University of Stirling linked charity Paws for Progress. There will be a drinks reception afterwards for all who attend. The film is in Japanese with English subtitles.

ASSEMBLE!

ASSEMBLE! Is an arts project conceived and delivered by independent artist Nic Green, in collaboration with Hydra arts and Clifftop Projects , two arts organisations based in West Dunbartonshire. Together throughout 2023/24 they worked with the people and communities of West Dunbartonshire as part of the wider national project of Remembering Together: Co-Creating Community Covid Memorials.

The National Exhibition and Archive of this work is held at the University of Stirling.

ASSEMBLE! Took the form of a mobile, pop-up theatre, transferable to community centres, parks, riversides, schools and car parks in West Dunbartonshire. Each ASSEMBLE! event invited members of the local community alongside local artists to share their experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic, through performance. These performances spanned story, song, movement, music and composition, poetry, spoken work and video. Each performance was documented through written text, scribed live during each event, and spoken back as the last performance.

The project visited Stirling at the Pathfoot Building in March 2025 and included dance, live performance, music, poetry and storytelling and connects to the University of Stirling’s Covid-19 Oral History Archive Project.

Memoria: Audrey Grant

25 May 2024 – 9 March 2025

Audrey Grant was Artist in Residence for the year 2023/24 at the University of Stirling. Throughout her residency she has interrogated the landscape, uncovering undiscovered aspects of a parkland whose primary function is now as a university institution, but whose landscape contains the echoes of the lives of those who have lived and worked within its boundaries.

Developed over her year-long residency, Memoria considered and responded to the visible and invisible traces left in the landscape of the historic Airthrey Estate through various media: photography, film, paint and sculpture.

(some pics and more info are here: https://archives.stir.ac.uk/2024/06/26/artist-in-residence-audrey-grant-2023-24/)

Other Events

Art Collection Open Day

Saturday 25th May 2024

The Art Collection hosted their annual Open Day, consisting of tours, workshops and performances that explored at celebrated the exhibition series ‘Inspired! Campus and Collections as Inspiration’. The exhibitions explored how the beautiful University of Stirling campus, our collections, and the history of the place, have inspired creative thought and action.

Iain (M) Banks Exhibition

4 April – 15 August 2024

Each year Archives and the Art Collection work together to teach the undergraduate course Exhibition Interpretation and Design. Our students were tasked with creating an exhibition using the archive of writer Iain Banks, who began learning his craft at Stirling. This exhibition explored this internationally significant writer and his roots here in Stirling.

(more info here if relevant: https://www.stir.ac.uk/events/23-24/two-authors-one-man-launch/)

The Valley Exhibition

February 2024

The Art Collection collaborated with students from YCP at Forth Valley College to create the exhibition The Valley, which responded to the prompt, ‘What Inspires Me About Stirling’.

(can provide images if relevant)

Artist Talk: Margaret Mitchell

25 September 2024

A collaboration with the Stirling Photography Festival, Forth Valley College Photography Courses, University of Stirling Photojournalism Course and the Art Collection. We were delighted to welcome Stirling-born photographer Margaret Mitchell to the Pathfoot Building to talk about her practice and the work on display in Pathfoot that explores the story of her nephew’s life journeys.

(more info here if relevant: https://www.stir.ac.uk/events/2024-25/art-collection/artist-talk-margaret-mitchell/)

Kevin Harrison

Kevin Harrison is the Director of Artlink Central, a charity and social enterprise designing creative experiences in conjunction with artists, public bodies and led by disadvantaged or marginalised people particularly in health, social care or criminal justice contexts. . Kevin joined the organisation five years ago and was previously Arts and Wellbeing Manager with Sense Scotland since 2006, supporting a Scotland-wide participation in the arts for disabled people with communication needs. Kevin managed the development of a range of arts projects including Threads and Found in Translation, projects exploring cultural diversity and disability, and Leaving New Craigs, a life history project in Inverness for people leaving the last long stay hospital in Scotland. He managed a national arts and wellbeing team and supported the establishment of a strong creative programme in the TouchBase, a new inclusive base for people and communities supported by Sense Scotland in the south side of Glasgow. Kevin who has a degree in theatre and film from Roehampton University and who undertook postgraduate studies in Arts Management and Policy at Birkbeck University of London is also a trustee for Scottish Prison Arts Network, chair of Dementia Friendly Forth Valley as part of a Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) programme. Previous posts include freelance editor and administration roles with key national disability arts organisation, Shape Arts and public sector roles in Arts Development and as Business Manager, Creative Academy, Slough Borough Council, supporting a multi-million pound EQUAL creative industries inclusion programme . He also has experience of managing Music 4 Slough, a Youth Music Action Zone.