How times change. 20 years ago I lived round the corner from AB school. With a rotten reputation they wanted it demolished. Now it will provide jobs for middle class professions and further embed N London gentrification. If it was in Motherwell they’d blow it up. c20society.org.uk/news/hall-fo...

Dancing Oaks Gallery 495, Cellardyke 12 July - 30 September 2025 Open 24/7 I am showing new work at the Gallery 495 phone box community exhibition space by Cellardyke harbour, about ecology, pedagogy, and public art made in response to the local landscape of the East Neuk.

I once enjoyed the great privilege of a private audience with Irving Finkel discussing the BM cuneiform tablet library. Very little beats listening to a world expert. A memorable pleasure.

A reminder that the Tory propaganda (press) are vile misogynists, regardless of Labour’s despicable policy.

Léon Krier is dead. He should be remembered as a Speer apologist and (intentional or unintentional) aesthetic smokescreen for far-right thought, from neo-Nazism to techno-feudalism www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/a...

Highlight of the Mike Nelson show @fruitmarket.bsky.social

Better public art than the Biennale.

Interesting to note the similarities and differences between these southern new / expanded towns and those of the north and Scotland.

As a historian of protest, the number one question I get asked, by radio/podcast presenters, students, other people, is "why do political and social movements keep choosing to do peaceful protests like demonstrations if they usually fail?" 1/n

Life, apparently.

Now available for Edinburgh birthdays, weddings, barmitzvas, etc.

Join Andrew for a walking tour of Livingston new town and its splendid public art this Saturday (June 7th) - the sun is sure to shine! 😎

A reminder that this is happening next Saturday 7 June. Public art everywhere from civic showpieces, social housing and concrete poetry in infrastructure, to supermarket car parks and drains - “something for everyone!” ;-)

Public art overkill www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...

Livingston! Please join me and @ssahistory.bsky.social for a walking tour of highlights from the Livingston public art collection. Non-members and concrete fans welcome. Let’s take it to the streets, man! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/livingston...

Spot the eider nesting.

Academics take note.

“Locating our value in work or, when that fails, the state, is always precarious… People’s value cannot lie in the value they produce; if our value is vested in anything but our shared humanity, it is ultimately unstable.” 🤍

Future city.

“The owls are not what they seem”.

Inglis deserves more than ‘ordinary’ www.theguardian.com/global/2025/...

Modern nature.

“Yeah, I’ll put the barcode sticker right there…”

After a necessary but rather disappointing Americano we moved on to Grass (Poetry Circles), 1977, by David Harding, Alan Bold and Hugh Grant. Sadly in poor condition with text only legible thanks to the moss.

Walking from Balfarg henge to David Harding’s Henge in Glenrothes, beginning with the new town Neolithic at Balbirnie stone circle #publicart

Havers! (Oh dear) Balmond and Jencks both have form in this area as artist dilettantes but neither with projects that are actually public (private commissions). Why should any public money be spent in this private enterprise tourist attraction?

These do not appear to be New Towns in any sense, neither independent urban entities nor related to the socio-political agenda of the postwar govt. Zero design innovation or attempt to reform a failed system, just more of the same.

1/7 Appointed Livingston town artist in 1974, Denis Barns was the closest comparative town artist to David Harding, sharing a similar timeframe, duration and circumstance. His architectural collaborations, employing the craftsmanship of bricklayers, was observed as a utopianist “medieval modernism”.

Delighted to be (peripherally) associated with this important project. Huge congratulations to all involved! 👏👏 @alistairfair.bsky.social @vawright10.bsky.social

David Harding and Alan Bold, Poetry Path, 1977, Glenrothes The neat, angled routes designed by planners around public open spaces are often subverted by people taking the shortest distance between two points - across the grass. These are described by planners as 'desire lines’. #publicart #poetry

1/4 Next up: Poetry Slabs, 1974. One of David Harding’s early town art projects was a concrete mural at Tanshall, Glenrothes. This marked the start of a series of works that embedded art in infrastructure, notably pedestrian underpasses.

1/8 In the lead up to the 'Art and Text' conference at the National Library of Scotland with the Scottish Society for Art History, I am posting a few items from my presentation 'Off the page, off the wall: New Town poetry in concrete'. sway.cloud.microsoft/gF7w4w9zFfB6...

Join us! You’ll like it, tell your friends!

📖 Art & Text conference, in partnership with National Library of Scotland 6-7 Feb 📃Join us for a fascinating programme, incl Matthew Jarron presenting on Word and Image in the University of Dundee Museum Collections. 🎟 General £35 Concession/SSAH member £25 Book here: tinyurl.com/3su4snnv

For all who love new town art and want to know more, this looks great.

Art and Text Conference 6-7 February 2025 National Library of Scotland I will be giving a paper ‘Off the page, off the wall: New Town poetry in concrete’. Lots of interesting speakers and ideas to be shared. For info and tickets: sway.cloud.microsoft/gF7w4w9zFfB6...