I set up this design competition as part of my ongoing arts strategy work at Edinburgh Park funded by developers, Parabola. The award was designed to help in the creation of public art for Edinburgh’s new ‘cultural quarter’ in the west of Edinburgh, with a focus on supporting emerging artists to develop their work, establish their careers and, hopefully, lead to more commissions.

We had  applications from artists across Scotland and during 2024, the five shortlisted artists, April Lannigan, Ben Barbour, Justine Watt, Katie Hallam and Oktavia Schreiner created proposals based on their interpretation of Edinburgh Park. Their proposals were exhibited at Edinburgh Park and visitors were able to vote for their favourote sculpture.

The winning proposal is called Subterranean Diversion by Ben Barbour and it invites viewers to reimagine the layering of histories that has taken place on this site across time. The free-flowing line depicts the historic path of Gogar Burn through what is now Edinburgh Park. The circle in the sculpture is a  reference to the height of the culvert pipes which divert the Burn under the site today. With these two elements intertwined, the resulting structure also invokes the form of a Bronze Age brooch found in the Burn.

I am now working with Ben and Pangolin Editions to bring his proposal to life and the sculpture will find it's home at Edinburgh Park in 2026.

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