Posted by Keith To the People of Durham I am writing to you on behalf of the Brandon Heritage Group with concerns over the forthcoming sculpture to overshadow the skyline of County Durham. As a member of a heritage group, the siting of a modern sculpture with the idea of bringing tourists to the County of Durham perplexes me. Surely a just and fitting celebration of the history and heritage of the North East area would be a sculpture of meaning. A sculpture showing one of the main industries of the North… Coal. A suitable sculpture with modern overtones but created with a mining link would surely bridge the gap between the past to the future and would mean more to the people of Durham predominantly coal workers and families of coal workers than any modern sculpture which I’m sure would make County Durham people feel alienated from their home city. A fitting sculpture the cost of which still has not been determined would be something similar in the vein of Brian Brown’s sculpture at Redhill. Surely the people of Durham should be consulted before an artist is preliminary commissioned for a piece of art – that a great many people are uncomfortable with. Durham Cathedral has been the sentinel of the City of Durham for almost a thousand years and was built on coal. If the skyline of Durham has to be clouded by a piece of art- then let it be Durham art by Durham people for Durham people. Durham has recently been voted the ‘souless city’ and if the Arts Panel and the members of our council decide to go ahead with this new soul destroying exercise, then all I can say is St. Cuthbert will turn in his grave. Gone is the quaint olde worlde city that I remember Durham to be. This would seem to me to be a case of progress at any expense and certainly at the cost of the taxpayers! Are we looking at another Gala, another white elephant that certainly never forgets? If the planners and artists go ahead without the consultation of the people then when voting comes around at our next election – we shall not forget either.
on 8/17/2005, 8:13 pm
81.129.193.136
12 th August 2005 Please pass this email on Thanks in advance
>For Publication
>
>The people of Durham have not been consulted over the placing of a
radical
>piece of sculpture set against the City skyline, the cost of which has
not
>estimated.
>
>How can an artist be commissioned if the decision has not yet been
taken
>and
>the cost investigated, a massive cost, by no doubt that will for the
most
>part be met by the taxpayers of Durham?
>
>There are a few mining memorials to those brave miners who lost their
lives
>in coalmining but these are dotted about the coalmining villages of
Durham
>and rightly so as there are memorials to those that fell in both world
>wars in
>the rural areas of County Durham.
>There is, however, no collective memorial to those that fell in one of
>Britain's hardest and most perilous industries.
>
>Few tourists travel to the villages as they are not always accessible
to
>the
>traveller.
>
>Beamish Museum is 12 miles north of Durham, it is a wonderful museum
but
>the
>cost is
>extravagant and far beyond the reach of the pockets of the ordinary
folk of
>Durham.
>Killhope,again is a museum with great pulling power but hard to access
and
>expensive.
>
>Are we going to prostitute the county of Durham yet again to tourism
for
>the
>sake of
>making money without caring for our own home grown.
>Perhaps our planners are too busy worshipping at the altar of the
almighty
>dollar instead of worshipping in our glorious cathedral.
>Have they consulted the Bishop of Durham over the thought that the
>cathedral
>might be overshadowed by our Fry in the Sky? I doubt it.
>Do we want to be likened to the Milton Keynes 'Concrete Cows" and put
on
>the
>map for the wrong reasons?
>
>Yes, tourists would enjoy a 'one-off "visit — but do we the people
of
>Durham
> really want to gaze at a dish in the sky for the rest of our lives
—
>day-in
> day-out-
>I don't think so.
>
>The workers of Durham County have lived with promises of Pie in the
Sky for
>too long — we don't need a vessel to cook some more in!
>
>For and on behalf of Brandon Heritage Group
>0870 811 1982
>
>
>mercedes de Dunewic
>keith Hutchinson
Petition http://www.petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=1993
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