Art Walk Projects were invited in 2017 to develop an art engagement project working with Sustrans and East Dunbartonshire Council, to help develop a local community conversation around ways to improve public access within central parts of Lenzie. Key parts to this discussion were around ways to work with the locality of the railway station and surrounding car park, that occupy a central part of the town.
Working with artists Jacqueline Donachie, Deirdre Macleod, City of Play, Rosy Naylor and Nathalie Holbrook a series of temporary installations took place in local woodlands, shops and street spaces over a two-month period, along with the publishing of an ‘Inside Lane’ newspaper (2017) and public consultation events working with Sustrans.
The project sought to connect up disparate, sometimes hidden, lost spaces, inviting the public to think about ways through their public space, relating to local resident, pedestrian, cyclist and car user.
Download Inside Lane Newspaper (pdf)
Jacqueline Donachie contemporary artist, living in Lenzie, contributed to the published newspaper (image above) with a feature article ‘The circle of park and run’ together with text from the article placed on the disused telephone kiosk in the central shopping area of the town.
Deirdre Macleod’s ‘Common Ground’ project centred around the placing of 50 colourful metal paintings within the centre of Lenzie, amongst its pedestrian pathways and within Lenzie Moss. Small and unobstrusive the paintings, neither way-markers nor street signs, served as a playful urban game, encouraging all to look again at their local surroundings.
The City of Play ‘Mirror bridge’ chalk-work marking the site of the old Mirror Bridge by Lenzie Station drawing upon the somewhat historically unsafe intersection of the bridge with Auchinloch Road and a central part of the engagement with the community about ways to develop this part of Lenzie.
Nathalie Holbrook’s installation ‘Conservation Horizons’ placed around sites at Lenzie Moss drew attention to the rich ecological habitats of the moss to consider ways we inhabit, navigate and work with living landscape around us.
Rosy Naylor ‘Ling. Lug. Luggie. Lane.’ played on old words to describe Lenzie. ‘Lane’ coming from the word meadow, or swampy plain, and upon which the ‘Inside Lane’ project is named. ‘Ling’ is the old Scots for the common heather, and a prefix for bog-grass. ‘Lug’ is applied to a root vegetable that contains too much leaf or stem, due to being cultivated on land too rich. ‘Luggie’ refers to ground which produces such crops. Rosy’s intervention was situated at the entrance to Strathkelvin Railway Path from Woodilee Road.
Jacqueline Donachie, The Circle of Park & Run
Nathalie Holbrook, Conservation Horizons
Deirdre Macleod, Common Ground
Rosy Naylor, Ling. Lug. Luggie. Lane.