When Cellardyke-based jewellery maker, Kirsty Thomas, collaborated with international interiors company Formica she wasn’t to know then it would lead to a Create in Fife Award. Then again, 2013 was the launch of the first ever Create in Fife Awards and on Wednesday 13 November Kirsty, of Lovely Pigeon collected her award beside three other delighted winners. In fact, the diversity of the winners was notable in itself: a new
Music of every genre from folk to Viking intergalactic thrash metal will ring out from over 20 venues this weekend as Dunfermline Live gets underway. More than 50 acts will perform including national festival headlining bands and young performers playing their first gigs. What makes the festival unique is that for one weekend a year the whole town becomes a music venue: as well as in theatres, clubs and bars, you’ll find musicians
The excellent Cupar Arts Festival has just got underway and runs until 17 October. An impressive list of interesting visual arts events has been put together, including a man wondering around town dressed as a pig, handwriting cut into the town’s park grass and video projections onto buildings of people immersed in water. There are lots of live music performances and family activities too. Also featured is the work of
Without whisky Prince Albert of Monaco and Alex Bruce, a descendant of Robert the Bruce would never have met. It was Adelphi whisky, bottled in Charlestown, Fife that brought the two together; the Monagasque royal buys whisky from Alex who manages the company. Scotland’s national drink could be the unsung hero of international relations. When Alex heard that the Prince,who loves Scotland, was doing a private tour with Princess Charlene,
Brilliant Fife photographer Kevin McCollum is back from an enviable trip to New York and Chicago bringing back with him not the usual collection of selfies and naked knee shots but these stunning images in both colour and black and white. New York really is the city equivalent of Kate Moss – no matter the advancing years nor the decadence, it has just so many looks and seems hardly able
100% Madagascan chocolate was described by one Hello Chocolate customer as ‘like chewing paracetamol’. But Gill Lyth, founder of the Dunfermline chocolate company, doesn’t sell the most bitter of all chocolates – she just uses it for her tasting events. She explains: ‘During our chocolate experience events we taste chocolate from around the world, from countries like Tanzania & Ecuador and, despite its bitterness, some customers actually like the 100%
David Austin’s self-confessed low boredom threshold has been good for Dunfermline in Fife. Having opened Reuben’s, a cafe/deli which quickly became popular in the town, he soon added a wine store. The venue, named after his son, then started hosting wine tastings and live music events. After that came the de Brus beer, the town’s own blond ale developed by David and named after King Robert the Bruce. The beer
Claire Lamond, Andrew Lennie and Alan Grieve are the artists behind the Real Bothy Project. Travelling through Fife this summer, they have been inviting people of all ages to ‘grab a bothy brew and join in the bothy banter’, continuing a long association of artists with the wild shelters of Scotland. They say, ‘traditionally, the bothy is understood as an egalitarian environment, a space for exchange. a place of chance
For Lowry, the industrial landscape inspired his matchstick men. For Hockney it was the swimming pools of California and for Banksy, gritty urban backdrops. For Scottish artist Ann Oram a diverse series of places have been the spur for her work. For the time being, the place is Fife – not the East Neuk which is the usual choice for artists – but the picturesque Logie Estate in Crossford near