The Stromness streets are set to become a gallery for the exhibition ‘Open Windows’. A group of forty-five artists will be showing their work in windows throughout the town. The on-street gallery stretches from the Pierhead to just beyond the Museum, framed in the windows of householders and businesses.

 Happening in the weeks around the St Magnus Festival, the exhibition will give locals and visitors alike a chance to enjoy a walk through the town while seeing an eclectic mix of artworks. Streamers in the colours of the Orkney flag will let ‘gallery walkers’ know the participating windows.

 The project has been gathering speed over the last few months and what was initially to be a small pool of artists flooded into a group of forty-five. Four artists – Ros Bryant, Diana Leslie, Frances Pelly and Rebecca Marr- are managing the project. They said it’s been a fair amount of work but a whole lot of enjoyment working together.

 Ros said ‘It’s been a very encouraging experience, Stromness has really opened its windows to the idea. This exhibition relied the goodwill of the people who generously offered their windows’. 

 Rebecca felt the idea gained its own momentum quickly, ‘One artist told another and the project just grew, we did not select the group and the exhibition is not curated. It’s incredible that it could all happen in such a short space of time, and shows the generosity of spirit of the window owners and the artists’.

 Artists Ros Bryant and Frances Pelly had the initial thought of using the windows as exhibition spaces, ‘Frances and I were stone carving together and over lunch we started thinking about dressing Stromness up with art. We liked the idea of a gallery that would be open air and could be seen by everyone passing, something that would be bright and fun.’

 An information panel will be in the window at the Eventide building at the Pier along with a map of Stromness drawn by artist Diana Leslie. Leaflets detailing the artists and the windows will be available at the Pier Arts Centre and Northlight Studio.

 Most of the artworks are for sale and can be purchased by contacting the artist direct or through Northlight- the contact point for the project and where there will be a display about the making of the exhibition. Northlight is open daily 10am-1pm and 3-6pm, where Ros is exhibiting ‘Soundings’ new work in tapestry and stone.  

 The Open Windows project was supported by the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme and Stromness THI and will be supported in future years by exhibition sales. This year’s management team are keen to see other artists take on the project for future years and see if the streets of Stromness can become an annual Open Windows exhibition space.

 The Open Windows exhibition runs from Saturday 11^th June to Sunday 26^th June. Open 24 hours!

Source: R Marr