Alphabet Museum Exhibition

Thursday November 07

Midsteeple Quarter and Dumfries Historic Buildings Trust are delighted to announce a newly commissioned public artwork for Dumfries’s town centre by nationally renowned artists Michelle de Bruin and Jo Crossland. This commission, part of the Dumfries Stonecarving Project, is on display at the Oven, 135-139 High Street from Monday 4th November through to Sunday 10th November.

The new artwork connects contemporary stonecarving and visual arts practice with the important history of stonemasonry in Dumfries and Galloway, and will be installed as part of future renovations of Standard Close during the community-led Midsteeple Quarter Development. Standard Close is an historic medieval close located just off the High Street in the heart of the town centre, and across from the iconic Midsteeple Building. The close is being renovated as part of the Midsteeple Quarter development project, which is designed to create a contemporary Standard Close and to begin ‘putting the people back’ into the town centre.

The new public artwork is titled ‘The Alphabet Museum’ and was created by artist stonecarvers Michelle De Bruin and Jo Crossland. They have created a full, A-to-Z stonecarved alphabet which highlights and celebrates the history of the Dumfries and Galloway Standard newspaper, and the printing letterpress that once operated at that exact location. The Standard newspaper was printed at 133 High Street for over 100 years (from 1853 – c1970), and Standard Close is named after it.

Michelle said “Jo and I were delighted to be invited to Dumfries and contribute a new public artwork for the town. We were so inspired by the rich architectural history, specifically the legacy of stone carved inscriptions within the centre — and the lettering history within Standard Close itself. The history of writing is fundamental for the development of all cultures worldwide, and it was great fun to devise our own alphabet museum. We were thinking about the wider significance of our alphabet, while drawing on local architectural letters and traditional letterpress forms. We hope it will be seen as a permanent celebration of this part of the heritage of Dumfries.”

Project Lead for the Dumfries Stonecarving Project, Dr. Tara s Beall, said: “This commission is an excellent opportunity for us to shine a light on local heritage and the amazing stonecarving in the town centre. Some of the letters from ‘The Alphabet Museum’ are inspired by existing stonecarving in the Dumfries town centre – for example, the “B” in the alphabet is taken from the ‘B’ in the sign for Burton’s clothing store!” In addition to the excellent carving work by de Bruin and Crossland, the commission also provided an opportunity for a mentee, Georgia Spencer from Lockerbie, to work alongside the artists for  two weeks in their studio at Hutton Stone, Berwick.

For the past year, the Dumfries Stonecarving Project has been led by the Dumfries Historic Buildings Trust, working to celebrate the amazing sandstone heritage of the area – from quarries at Locharbriggs to carved gargoyles in the town centre. It is generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Holywood Trust, and the People’s Project.

The beautiful hand carved letters will be installed in the future as part of the planned redevelopment,  so its a great opportunity to see them ahead of the build and to also find out a little more about the stonecarving project. We hope you’ll come along and visit.