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An Arran woman inspired by the island to pursue a career as an artist and visionary is turning her skills to a project to help a deprived high-rise community in Edinburgh.
Now her scheme, to create a shared open space to cultivate food and energy, is on a shortlist of ten for funding.
Clare Galloway, who was brought up in High Corrie and attended Corrie Primary School and Arran High School before going on to Glasgow School of Art and further study, hopes to receive £16,500 to help her in her quest to improve the lives of people residing on the Calders estate, on the edge of Wester Hailes.
The body awarding the funds is Scotland UnLtd which supports individuals rather than groups.
This is for level 2 funding. Two years ago Clare received level 1 support for a small garden project.
She is busy working out a presentation to give to a panel in February, after which she will know if she has been successful. She also hopes to receive support from other agencies and has already drawn up a business plan and a viable financial projection.
Clare lives in a flat on the 12th floor of a high-rise on Calders estate, which is also her studio.
She said: ‘I want to set up a large-scale project and I am looking for £16,500 support for the first two years.
‘The Calders estate contains a high-rise community of 408 households.
‘The high flats exacerbate serious social and crime problems, but there is inefficient infrastructure to solve them problems.
‘There is no support system for the community. Our community centre closed a couple of months ago and there are no clean, safe outside spaces, particularly for children.
‘I feel very strongly that if you put something creative into a community, something creative will happen in them and you get something back.
‘In this project we hope to have a regular market, and eventually to sell seeds and trees online.
‘This will be a key resource for children in the area.
‘We have about 30 children very keen to do things. To me the most important thing is to start with the children and they take the idea home and it pulls in other people.’
Clare is the chairwoman of the Calder High Rise Neighbourhood Council, which runs a small jumble shop and work for improvements to the estate.She is a recent postgraduate in art, space and nature from Edinburgh College of Art, and works as a self-employed artist and visionary.
At her studio she paints and makes books, and also does illustration and murals. She can hold workshops and carries out individual large-scale commissions.
She was inspired by the artistic heritage of High Corrie and as a child knew the playwright Robert McLellan.
She was also inspired by the artist Hundertwasser, who died in 2000.
Clare said: ‘I found it very difficult to find my place in society, but in the last four years in Edinburgh am finding ways to bring my own creative power to a place which needs a voice and energy source. If you can inspire people to realise their creativity it can change their lives.’ Clare can be contacted via her website www.claregalloway.co.uk
