Speaker Caroline Mathers

Rotary club of Stirling  meeting of 26th July.

President Sandy Farquharson welcomed our speaker Caroline Mathers the new director of the Smith Art Gallery and Museum, to the meeting.

Caroline, a Dundonian and social arts historian, has previously worked with Scottish Opera at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, and more recently established a museum at Hearts football club. The Smith opened in 1874 as the Smith Institute, has a huge collection of paintings and other artefacts, and is very community based, being used by many local groups.
It is at present funded mainly by Stirling Council. Caroline's first project, gallery two, has been completely refurbished and rehung with a magnificent collection of pictures all from it's own collection. 
Equally important, the cafe, has been modernised and redecorated to continue it's important function as a point of contact with the public, for a coffee or snack, a place to meet friends. Gallery three a much larger area, contains a magnificent collection covering the Stirling story from prehistory until modern times, plus a world class collection of Pewter. This has not been changed for 19 years, illustrating the larger scale and expense of developing the role of The Smith. It must attract more visitors and make better contact with the many major attractions of Stirling, such as the castle. A new £50m tartan centre is to be built near the Engine Shed making more competition but also increasing the number of visitors some of which it must attract. The Smith will need to target and market it's own strengths as part of the Stirling tourist scene. Larger scale funding is currently being sought.
The Smith remains an important and much-loved part of Stirling life, with great potential for development. Colin Bayes gave the vote of thanks for Caroline's excellent talk.  For more info
Next week 2nd August Fellowship meeting visitor's host Derek Anderson.

Ian Richardson