Demarco in talks to win art festival funding

With the Scottish Arts Council already on board with 10,000 in funding, the vision of a visual arts festival is beginning to take shape.

The money is to help pay for a co-ordinator for the event, with the position expected to be advertised in a few weeks.

Mr Demarco and members of the steering committee for the proposed event now have their sights on at least a small-scale event in 2004.

A visual arts festival could range from painting and sculpture to photography. The Scottish National Photography Centre, now exploring with a 48,000 grant how it could use the former Royal High School building as a base, has signed up for the idea.

As a first step this year, there are likely to be efforts to co-ordinate the festival exhibitions already run by city and national galleries.

More ambitiously, artists from Scotland, Europe and as far away as Afghanistan or Iraq could be invited to carry out "interventions" at venues in Edinburgh and other cities - filling existing spaces with their art works rather than using new exhibition spaces.

The steering committee, due for its next meeting on Wednesday, includes Fiona Bradley, the director of the Fruitmarket Gallery, Wendy Law, of the Scottish Arts Council, and Richard Calvocoressi, the director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

But Mr Demarco, with his showman’s flair and contact list spanning four decades in the Edinburgh and international art scene, is seen as a driving force behind the idea.

Along with the 950 Christmas cards he sent this year, the arts impresario dispatched packages detailing the hopes for a festival to 100 artists, critics and curators in 35 countries.

The aim would be to bring new visitors to sites not benefiting from the exposure of the Edinburgh International Festival or the Fringe. Around Edinburgh, they could range from the Children’s Museum on the Royal Mile to the Museum of Flight in East Lothian.

But Mr Demarco also aims to include art spaces in Dundee and Glasgow, and even the Falkirk Wheel. He suggested the total budget for this year’s event could reach 100,000.

This summer, the Scottish Arts Council and the British Council together backed Scotland’s first independent show at the Venice Biennale, the art show clearly inspiring Mr Demarco’s vision for an annual Scottish event. It cost 400,000 to put on the exhibition of some 20 Scottish artists at the international show.

"I can’t wait for the Venice Biennale crowd to come to Edinburgh," he said. "I am determined that this year will see an event which uses the energy invested in all my years in the contemporary arts scene.

"There’s never been an exhibition I’ve done where I’ve had longer than six months to prepare. If you go longer, you lose the determination, the enthusiasm."

Mr Demarco reeled off the names of a string of artists who he said would be keen to come to Scotland. They included Elena Beelaerts, from Holland, and Uta Kogelsberger, from Germany. "They are two young artists who in the past few years have been keen to be in Edinburgh to make installations."

The "new Europe" could be represented by Norbert Attard, from Malta, set to be one of the new nations joining the European Union, and Zbigniew Makarewicz and Barbara Kozlowska from Poland. Others mentioned included Till Junkel and Sine Lewis from Denmark. "They would come to Edinburgh like a shot and would go about funding themselves with my help."

Mr Demarco ran the visual arts section of the Edinburgh International Festival from 1967 until 1992, when Brian McMaster took charge.

Last year’s Monet exhibition staged by the National Gallery was a huge draw during festival time. But Mr Demarco said: "It’s not enough for visual arts to be represented by the National Galleries. That wouldn’t be enough.

"Our National Galleries are our greatest asset, but I’m not talking about someone like Monet. I’m not talking about someone who’s dead. I don’t want the Edinburgh festival to be committed to the past and the dead but to the living and the future.

"We have spaces which are misunderstood and under-used during the festival, which will be perfect. I’m thinking of all the spaces owned by Edinburgh City Council."