Former Ardrishaig oil works transformed into industrial art gallery

A disused oil works on the Crinan Canal is set to be transformed into an industrial art canvas as an innovative pop-up exhibition celebrating the creativity, history and future of the canal corridor gets underway this Friday (26th August).

Celebrating the recent Crinan Corridor charrette, and in support of Artmap Argyll’s Open Studios event, Scottish Canals and Argyll & Bute Council have commissioned local artists Lesley Burr, Melanie Chmielewska and Sian MacQueen, as well as Edinburgh-based designers StudioLR, and Scottish Canals’ Artist-in-Residence Lesley Banks to transform the derelict Gleaner Oil Works in Ardrishaig into a unique art installation.

The free event, ‘Refuelling the Crinan Corridor’, will run from Friday 26th August until Sunday 28th August, with members of the public encouraged to come along and explore the exhibition between 10am and 5pm each day.

The exhibition will also feature art and video installations focusing on the area’s rich history, as well as outputs from the charrette. At 11am and 2pm each day Scottish Waterways Trust will run historical walking tours of the canal at Ardrishaig (sign-up on the day).  There will also be an opportunity for visitors to tell their stories of living and working in Argyll and on the canal.

“We were delighted with the success of the recent charrette, Crinan Canal Re-think the Link, and it was important to us that we took an opportunity to celebrate not only the outcomes of the charrette but everything that makes the Crinan corridor special.

This weekends event is truly unique and I would very much encourage everyone from the local area and beyond to come along and get involved.”

Chris O’Connell, Information Management and Heritage Officer at Scottish Canals

For more information, visit http://bit.ly/RefuelCrinan or follow @scottishcanals on twitter.

Notes to Editors

Scottish Canals is responsible to the Scottish Government for the management and development of the Union, Monkland, Forth & Clyde, Crinan and Caledonian Canals. As well as the waterways themselves, Scottish Canals care for 251 bridges, 212 buildings, 256 locks, The Falkirk Wheel, The Kelpies and 19 water supply reservoirs in locations across Scotland. The reservoirs cover an area equivalent to 7,494 football pitches and supply the canals with the 332 million litres of water which flow through them each day.

The Forth & Clyde, Union and Monkland canals in the Lowlands, the Crinan Canal in Argyll and the Caledonian Canal in the Highlands together extend over 137 miles from coast to coast, across country and into the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. Built two hundred years ago to fire the Industrial Revolution, Scotland’s canals are now recognised as Scheduled Monuments and attract 22million visits per year.

For more information, visit www.scottishcanals.co.uk or follow @ScottishCanals on Twitter

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