Fife Cultural Trust

The weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy was held on July 14th at the Dean Park Hotel. President John Kilgour welcomed 22 members of the club and one guest Rotarian and the guest speaker.

Rotarian Alice Soper advised the club that a great deal of work at taken place at the gardens at Kirkcaldy station . Rotarian Lindsay Stewart asked for volunteers to support the annual Gavel competition.

The main speaker was Laurie Piper, Head of Customer Services and External Relations for Fife Cultural Trust. Laurie gave an outline of the work the Trust performs for Fife Region.  He said that The Trust is the largest cultural provider in Fife. Each year almost 2 million people benefit from its services, both residents and visitors alike. The 400 staff bring a £13 million benefit to Fife. Fife Cultural Trust support 47 libraries, 12 heritage sites and museums and 4 theatres. It manages the archives of Fife’s cultural heritage and supports many community activities within the region. All this, free at the point of delivery and 361 days a year.

The Cultural Trust increasingly gets involved with community activities, particularly cultural and creative partnerships.  Recently the Dianne Arbus exhibition was brought to Kirkcaldy galleries and seen by 47000 visitors. Currently The Great tapestry of Scotland is being shown in Kirkcaldy and is a huge success.

Laurie told the club that the Library service was evolving, with the use of technology an important aspect of its work. PCs were used for research and learning purposes and had delivered 60000  IT taster sessions.

President John gave the vote of thanks, emphasising that Fife Cultural Trust was a great asset to not only the community in Fife but for Scotland as a whole. The improvements to the quality of life in our local communities helped in improving health and wellbeing for Fifers. Laurie had greatly enhanced our knowledge of the activities of Fife Cultural Trust and the club thanked him for his talk.

The meeting was closed with the club being advised that the next club meeting would be held on July 21st at the Dean Park Hotel.