Celebrate the River Don in high-profile exhibition
22/02/13
An exciting and dynamic community-led project has been launched in Aberdeen to celebrate the past, present and future of the River Don Corridor.
The Sustainable Urban Fringes (SURF) Aberdeen Project is delighted to announce the appointment of award-winning photographer Alicia Bruce, who grew up near the River Don, to oversee the project.
Alicia's role is to work closely with and support appreciators of the River Don Corridor to express their passion for the area through photography. She will run a series of collaborators' meetings, workshops, photography walks and internet exchanges to bring to life the largest celebration of the River Don to date.
The exhibition will launch in central Aberdeen in the summer before touring community venues.
As well as being an established photographer with works held in the National Galleries of Scotland Collection, Alicia is an experienced and established arts educator, lecturer, and community worker.
In 2008 she was Aberdeen Art Centre's artist in residence, hosting a series of community collaborations celebrating Aberdeen culture and Doric language through a series of photography workshops. Participants aged 8-80 enjoyed finding "new weys 'o seein' the 'deen".
Alicia said: "I'm delighted to be involved in such an inspiring project a few footsteps from where I grew up.
"The project immediately caught my imagination as I lost many hours looking at photographs on the SURF: River Don Project Facebook page seeing the place I went on childhood adventures.
"I'm hoping contributors will like having a local quine and a weel-kent face supporting them. I'm really looking forward to sharing my skills as a photographer with this already established group."
Alicia will also be asking the community to choose Victorian wet plate images by George Washington Wilson from Aberdeen University Special Collections Department.
The EU-funded project officially launches at Dunbar Hall at 11am on Saturday.