Coming to a silver screen near you soon, the story of a proud, idiosyncratic Highland community who discover that a dusty doorstop found in a shed is worth £2.5 million and the dramatic and hilarious consequences of the fallout.
Except, of course, it's not a film, or a cosy crime thriller or even wishful thinking. In a rare good news story the town of Invergordon really does have a bust of Sir John Gordon, the MP and Secretary for Scotland, created by none other than Edme Bouchardon, one of the most celebrated sculptors and draughtsmen of the 18th century.
The council of Invergordon bought the sculpture in a house sale for £5 in the 1930s, many years later it was found propping open the door of a shed. Currently, it’s being held in secure storage at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery because, unsurprisingly, the town doesn't have a more suitable place to hold such a valuable work of art.
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Now, With Sotheby’s believing the piece has reached its peak value, a public consultation is open as to whether or not the sculpture should be sold and that money invested back into the community. Meanwhile, art historians are claiming the sale would be a loss to Scotland's art heritage and that the bust should instead be held in one of our country’s more prominent museums.
It might be true to say it’s a loss, I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at the image of this sculpture writing this piece and it is undoubtedly, even to my deeply untrained eye, a work of beauty that is profoundly touching to me in the way the art can be without quite understanding why.
But do you know what is even more touching, more powerful to me than resting my eyes on good art? The idea of a well-resourced community where its young people have all they need to thrive. Invergordon comes roughly midway, at 3700, in the rankings for Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 and they themselves are the first to say that they have areas of deprivation. It makes me wonder how much of a difference that £2.5 million investment would make to that small town?
In my mind, I think of those millions fluttering down from the Highland skies in £20 notes, a pink and lilac flurry, making a difference to each and every one of its citizens. I see playgrounds constructed and updated outdoor spaces for our isolated elders, new books and resources for the public library and free community events. Perhaps a huge cash injection for their local community food larder aka their food bank.
Suddenly, the sculpture doesn't inspire me as much as I thought it did or seem that much more artistically impactful than anything a talented student could make.
But how to appease those who’d say to sell off the bust and take the cash is literally selling out Scottish arts heritage? Well, how about that money being plunged back into arts in the area so that young people, perhaps those from less advantaged backgrounds, can see whether they might have the ability to become Scotland's next Bouchard themselves?
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I have built a good career out of my writing but only through several vaults of good luck, if I'm being perfectly honest. Growing up in poverty on council estates and homeless B&Bs in various deprived places in Scotland, I did not have access to craft or educational toys, gallery or theatre visits. I especially did not have the luxury of the idea that I might create because I was good at something rather than graft to earn a pay packet as my first priority.
This month alone, my wee boy has been to three world-class galleries. He's toddled about the astounding huge-scale glimmering sculpture of Nigerian artist El Anatsui and when he got home declared he wanted to be a sculptor when he grew up. He had a box full of craft supplies, parents who had time to give him and is always encouraged to think of himself as being able to do anything and go anywhere if he wishes to.
This is obviously an incredible privilege. Now, imagine if every child in Invergordon also had the gift of discovering what they might be good at and exploring that? That I can give my boy that instead of running from the black dog of poverty from the moment he was born is, I think, my greatest creative accomplishment.
If this was my film, I’d call it The Bust by the way and the soundtrack would all be Rachel Sermanni and Belle and Sebastian, I’d depict a town burgeoning and finally bursting with creative, artistic endeavour. Every person would get a big box of materials of their choice, visits to theatres, galleries to stimulate and inspire and once those emerging creatives matured there would be bursaries so that they might have money (which equals time, which equals space to be able to create) so they might reach their true potential.
Somehow, that small bust of a man staring off into the mid-distance would have been used to create a whole new wave of artists and creators from the town. Now that, in my opinion, is a legacy, that is heritage in action.
It's been reported that the potential buyer of the statue is also happy to have a museum standard replica bust made that the town can prominently display. Then you really have to ask yourself, with or without your hand brought pensively to your chin, ‘What is art?’ Art to me is ever evolving, ever nourishing, always challenging and while clasping on to some historical artefacts might give us a sense of wealth surely engaging a whole new generation of creators is truly an art worth fighting for.
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