East Linton Community Association has been showing artworks by local artists since 1968. The annual show is run by volunteers, raising money for the Community Hall and is open to all visual artists over the age of 18. It is held in September in East Linton Community Hall.
Presently the Art Committee Members are: Senada Borcilo, Donny Cuthbert, Carol Duff, Hilary Fraser, Karin Haig, Rosemary Oberlander, Margaret Rougvie, Lorna Shearer and Emma Westwater.
The idea of an annual art exhibition was drawn from the village’s former popularity with artists such as Arthur Melville, Robert Noble, Martin Hardie and John Pettie ( to name a few) all of whom were born or lived in East Linton. The judges for this first show in 1968 were William G. Gillies and Stanley Wright, former and current Principal of Edinburgh College of Art at the time.
In 2018 we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the first exhibition. To mark this historic event, the present ECA Acting Principal Stuart Bennett was the Judge of the Show. Nearly 300 framed works of art were displayed over three Galleries.
It was a great honour to welcome our special guests: George Laing, Emily Craik, Donald Bey, Ian Gavin, Hue Muir and Clara Stewart, members of East Linton Traders Association, who initiated the exhibition and passionately ran it for the first 20 years. Emily Craik officially opened our 50th Exhibition.
The winner of the 50th Anniversary East Linton Art Show was Komachi Goto with her work "Octoboo". The two Highly Commended paintings were Tom Ewing's "Dalkeith Country Park" and Angela Woof's "Storm Ophelia, Suspense”.
Thanks to generosity of Eve’s Foundation for the 50th Anniversary, the financial prize was reinstated for the best artworks. Eve’s Foundation has kindly agreed to be our official sponsor for this year’s East Linton Annual Art Exhibition/Competition.
This year’s prize for the best artwork is £500 and 5 prizes of £100 each for 5 categories : painting, drawing, graphic/print, 3D and photography.
OPENING - THURSDAY 5th SEPTEMBER
from 6 - 9 pm
Refreshments and nibbles will be available during the evening, which will also include the announcement of this year's winning artists.
OPENING TIMES of the Exhibition:
Friday 6th and Saturday 7th - 10am until 8pm
Sunday 8th - 12 noon until 6pm
Entry to the exhibition is free but donations are welcome.
The judge for this year’s competition is Geraldine Prince.
Geraldine is an art historian who taught at both Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art for over three decades, eventually as Director of the Centre for Continuing Studies. She was committed to engaging people in the visual arts and ran many projects over the years ranging from public lectures to study tours abroad to Iran, Japan and India among other destinations.
She has lived in North Berwick since 2001 and, after completing a much-delayed PhD, was appointed to the NB Community Council. From there she set up the arts group, pARTicipate, and has focussed on community projects including the transformation of derelict phone booths into a micro-museum and the restoration of the Stevenson murals on NB High Street.
Her next project is to explore setting up a network of artists in East Lothian and Fife to share information, ideas and spaces.
