There is another side to ‘who we are’: unmotivated, uninventive, unenthused, unambitious, perhaps demoralised. This negative tendency just booted  into touch a proposal that the This Is Who We Are exhibition might come here. (Sorry for the metaphor but it has been a big rugby weekend.)

Argyll was offered this exhibition and the brief reply received from Argyll and Bute Council’s arts department at Eaglesham House in Rothesay was simply that there are no exhibition spaces in Argyll and Bute.

When this was brought to For Argyll’s attention yesterday (28th February and not, we would want to make clear, by the curators themselves whom we had not known before) we were infuriated, despairing and challenged in equal part.

It is infuriating to have evidence that indicates a lack of imagination, red corpuscles and simple get-up-and-go in the only formal point of access to the arts in Argyll. Who could not be enlivened by the generative excitement of this work? Who would not bend walls to make it happen here?

It is despairing to wonder how many other exciting experiences have been offered to Argyll over God knows how many years and have been similarly stifled at birth. This is unlikely to have been the only such incident.

Argyll cannot afford to be seen by the creative industries as an inactive sump. Along with renewable energy, outdoor activity resources and wildlife access, cultural energy will breed a major part of the social and economic development Argyll badly needs.

Yes, it may be that good people are in the wrong jobs. It may be that the appointing criteria are wrong – that the added value that specific ‘charged’ individuals can bring to a job is not prioritised. It may also be that the jobs are wrong, that they don’t offer room for creative and policy input. It may be all of these things. Neither Argyll nor Scotland will grow if we do not engage with these issues and take responsibility for change.

And we can do this

Calgary is a major link between Canada and Argyll. So is Campbeltown. So is Rothesay. So is Lismore . So is Iona. And there are others. This work speaks to and for Argyll. It has to be seen here.

For Argyll was  immediately challenged by the immediate nonsense of the alleged lack of any suitable spaces for this exhibition in Argyll. You have only to read the links to media responses to the exhibition in the UK, Canada and Scotland – given here below and supplied to Argyll and Bute Council arts department – to understand the flexible and informal nature of the work. Its heart is conversational and interactive. It does not need Tate Modern to materialise in Mid Argyll.

The exhibition, as it is formed – and it can be reformed – consists of 4 wall-hung panels measuring 1.6 metres wide and two free-standing displays which are 2.6 metres wide by 2 metres high. These use both sides. There is also an iMovie video. Graeme and Harry have made it clear that they will also do a talk and slideshow in venues too small even for such a physically undemanding show.

So the Corran Halls in Oban could not host such an exhibition? And An Tobar on Tobermory, next door to Calgary, is incapable of this as well, even though exhibitions are part of its normal programme? Aqualibrium in Campeltown has no exhibition space and would have no interest in this opportunity? We’ve phoned Aqualibrium and the answer is a positive yes on both counts. What about the magnificent Craignish Hall or the almost mystical Crear? What about Islay’s Ionad Chaluim Chille Ile  – and the new Port Mor Centre? And what about the Here We Are centre at Cairndow – a perfect foil to ‘This is who we are’?

What’s not possible?

• Scots Canadians tell mither country who they are (Times Online)
  
• Photo project unites Scotland with Canada (Canmore Leader)
• The Scots in Canada (Video news onThis Is Who We Are: The Herald on Sunday)

The photographs above are, top, of the This Is Who We Are exhibition at Mid Steeple, Dumfries; and of a road sign in Nova Scotia. Graeme says of this one: ‘Scotland is everywhere in Canada. This is the north shore road in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. One name not on the sign is Knoydart which is a small hamlet near Lismore. (Both photos: Graeme Murdoch)