From Wednesday 19th October | Academy Shopping Centre | Free

This was going to be yer usual post telling you about an art exhibition at The Academy shopping centre that opens on Thursday;  it’s called Maps, and features work loosely-based on the noble art of cartography by Donald Watson, Sophie Ormerod, Naomi Leckie and Anna Geerdes. Kick-off is on Thursday evening (at 6.30pm, with the promise of a free drinky for the liggers) and it runs until the 24th of this month.  Here’s the Facebook event page for it.  Fantastic.  Under normal circumstances, that would be it, the usual benign “whatsonery” that is our wont.

Something else may pique your interest however, namely the location of the aforementioned artsyness, because, my wee friends, the day before (Wednesday 19th October) sees the grand opening of another exhibition in the same space.  Aye, the shortlisted designs for the Union Terrace Gardens thing are being unveiled (no doubt accompanied by mucho fanfare, flag-waving and Christ knows what else). They’re being quite protective about it too, as this excellent Aberdeen Voice piece  on how yer-nae-even-allowed-to-take-photos-of-the-f**king-thing demonstrates.  Unbelievable,  prescient given last week’s events at the picturesque Braehead “retail destination” too.

For interest, here’s an email that the project’s PR fluffers The Big Partnership have been firing round various organisations (found via a simple Google search)

Good afternoon 

I am writing from The BIG partnership PR consultancy on behalf of ACSEF regarding the transformation of Union Terrace Gardens.

The City Garden Project has secured interest of globally renowned, award-winning architects and their designs for the Gardens will be unveiled on 18th of October with an exhibition opening its doors to the public on 19th of October 2011. I wonder if it would be possible to deliver a number of leaflets to your organisation for your customers and staff to peruse and take away detaining this information?

We are confident that the designs will inspire the public, capture their imagination and put to rest the negative perceptions which have surrounded the project to date.

The overall ambition of the City Garden Project is to transform Aberdeen’s city centre by creating a new, green and vibrant heart that will become a destination for residents and the catalyst for the regeneration of Union Street and its surroundings, ensuring that we attract new investment, business and people.

This is a project of national significance that is instrumental in helping Aberdeen become a 21st century world energy city. It has the potential to put Aberdeen on the cultural world map and make sure that we continue to punch above our weight in economic contribution to Scotland and the UK.

Following the public exhibition, the jury will select a winning design in mid-November, after taking consideration of the feedback from the public and recommendations from an expert technical panel. In December, the winning design and TIF business case will be put forward to Aberdeen City Council. The council will then decide if the project is to proceed to planning.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

I’ll leave you to deconstruct that at your leisure.  See you on Wednesday.  Don’t forget your camera…

‘Who said there was no such thing as a free lunch?’

Nah, can you imagine how many newspapers around the country are using that hilarious opening gambit this weekend?

Let’s have another go:

‘Union Terrace Gardens is only used by violent junkies and bandwagon-jumping workshy art hippies, the sooner we take up Sir Ian Wood’s generous offer and rid the city of this eyesore the better.’

Woah, where did that come from?  Must stop reading the P&J before I write on here…

Right, enough, here’s the real deal:

What started off as an idea at The Eden Project in Cornwall, The Big Lunch has now spread across the land and the Aberdeen event will see students from the University of Aberdeen (with help from Cafe 52) making free organic soup for all. Sounds good.  Don’t forget to bring along some other food to share as well.  There’ll be music too.  And it won’t rain.  Promise*

*This is a promise of the hollow variety and therefore it cannot be guaranteed by The Kiosque

In conjunction with Interesting Music Promotions, Friends of Union Terrace Gardens present a fundraiser for their cause (which you’ll all be aware of by now, right?)

MC Alan ‘Kitchen Cynics‘ Davidson presides over proceedings which will include music from Min Diesel, Steven Milne & his Solo Posse, Flaxman, Hashimoto Jones, Myke Black, Djembe drummers Drummin Aboot and Simon Gall & Steve Crawford.  There’s some good stuff in there and we’re promised a couple of surprises too.  Pay more than the suggested fiver in and get an iconic UTG badge which you can flout around town as well…

Oh, and keep an eye on our Twitter feed over there on the right for the latest press coverage on the whole UTG debacle, call it a hunch but we reckon there’ll be a LOT more to come…

I’d imagine a lot of you have heard about this already.  If not, the idea is a basic one; head down to Union Terrace Gardens, have a picnic, listen to some music and show just how important the place is to the city…

Links:

Facebook event page

Routemaster promotes Picnic in the Park protest (P&J)

Mass protest picnic to be held over Union Terrace Gardens plans (STV)

It’s become a bit of a joke to be honest,  unfortunately it’s deadly serious when not a day goes by without some ACSEF-weighted spin appearing.  Here’s today’s offering for example.  Translation: ‘We asked the people for their opinion, they gave it, but they’re the wrong kind of people. These aren’t real people.  They’re organised protesters’. It’s laughable stuff…

Anyway, the aforementioned consultation on The City Square Project ends on Friday, so fill in the survey here if you haven’t already done so. (I know most of you have, but it’s for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t taken action yet)

Alternatively, freephone 0800 111 4881, text your thoughts to 60777 followed by the word ‘square’ or email consultation@thecitysquareproject.com Remember to keep it civil (or civic, if you will).

That ‘vocal minority’ petition in support of the Peacock building is here (and currently at over 8000 signatures), please bring it to the attention of anyone who may be interested in keeping the city centre’s unique topography intact.

This could well be your last chance to have a say on the matter.

I mean, even the squirrels are speaking out now (and you dinna mess wi’ squirrels).  Oh, and in case you missed it, last Saturday saw a wee event in support of the gardens (check out this video of it by the supremely talented Adam Proctor) and there’s something similar happening on Friday at 2pm too. Same place, under Rabbie Burns’ statue.  Poetic.

Twenty tracks across various genres have been submitted by some of the best local talent (including Fiona Soe Paing, & Alan ‘Kitchen Cynics‘ Davidson) and you can pay what you want for the album. So, for as little as a quid you can do your bit for UTG and get some pretty cool stuff in return.

It’ll be available here

More on this later, however it might be worth your while heading down to the gardens at 1pm on Saturday the 27th (that’s tomorrow!) Something might be happening. *taps nose*

They haven’t a clue what would go in there: Italian Piazzas, Trafalgar Squares, Guggenheim Museums, underground tunnels, concert venues, babylon-esque gardens and various other nonsensical, reactionary ‘ideas’ have been mooted thus far, all with very little substance to them.

You just know that the huge funding shortfall would mean we’d end up with a half-arsed, embarrassing mish-mash which would cause irreplaceable damage to the city’s image and physical make-up. A piece in today’s Scotsman sums up the situation perfectly: The City Square Project is unworkable and threatens not only Peacock’s immediate future, but the future of arts and culture in the city as a whole.  Roll on Thursday…

Update 17/02/10: The Annie Lennox picture story has been picked up by The Scotsman today

http://soundcloud.com/fionasoepaing/dropbox

Or email them to:

carmichaeljayne@hotmail.com

…before Saturday 20th February and they’ll be considered for inclusion. They’re also looking for artwork too, get in touch at the address above or through this Facebook page.

Positive stuff…

Worst. Pun. Ever. It is relevant though, read on…

It’s been a wee while since we had a Union Terrace Gardens update outside of the Twitter Feed, but there have been some interesting developments today, so here goes:

It appears that local politicians have seen through ACSEF’s rather one-sided ‘public consultation’ and have called for a proper public debate on the matter.  ALL sides of the argument (and local residents) will finally get a chance to air their views. Hallelujah. It’ll take place on Thursday 18 February in the Salvation Army Citadel (which rather ironically overlooks the city’s original ‘civic square’) at 6.30pm. More details on a Facebook event page here…

…and exiled Aberdonian singer Annie Lennox (See? See? Pun justified) has added her name to the ever-growing list of people speaking out against the City Square Project, there are links to her thoughts on the matter here and a BBC story is here.

It’s so sad to think that the original Peacock plans would be well underway by now had Wood and ACSEF not foisted their non-ideas upon us and caused this almighty mess.  Well done…

Update 09/02/10

More coverage of the Annie Lennox story:  Times Online,  Scotsman,  STV,  Press & Journal

Local businessman speaks out on ‘pressure’ to support the City Square plans (P&J) while an editorial from the same newspaper comes out firmly in support of the Wood/ACSEF proposals. Sigh.

ACSEF/The City Square Project are holding an exhibition in the Mall Trinity (like you call it that) today Thursday 14 (until 8pm) and tomorrow Friday 15 January (from 9am to 6pm).

Go down, have a look, ask some questions then come home and fill out their survey if you haven’t already done so. Please be civil though.  They appear to be quite thin of skin.  Witness this story in today’s P&J for proof.  While it’d be easy to say ‘welcome to teh internetz etc’ and there’s little doubt that these perceived ‘personal attacks’ were directed at the ACSEF organisation as a whole, they’re going to be looking for more stuff like this, so tread carefully.  We do welcome the addition of the phrase ‘Oily Barstools‘ to the lexicon though. That’s a keeper.