Letter from the Chairman
Mark McGilchrist
The keen-eyed amongst you will notice some differences with our long-delayed Autumn newsletter: our normal Letter from the
Curator is absent. Alasdair Hood retired in April 2018 and since then the
Garden staff, under the direction of Bob Sutherland, have done an excellent job
maintaining the Garden. The University have been undertaking a wide review of
Campus Services and the role of curator is part of that exercise. My
understanding is that a replacement position will be advertised early in the
New Year.
For myself, this is my penultimate Letter
from the Chair. At the next AGM, I will have been 6 years in post and will ‘retire’.
Over these years, I and the Committee have focussed on engaging various communities
with the Garden through a series of projects that will come to an end during
this coming year, and now would seem a good time to inject some fresh thinking.
The Committee would like to hear from you regarding possible candidates for a
replacement Chair so that an early conversation can take place about this role
and its responsibilities.
Of all our initiatives this year, the one that offered the most
significant step forward was evening opening of the Garden during the summer
months. I would like to express my thanks to the group of volunteers assembled
to staff the reception desk and who provided continuous coverage over the June,
July and August period. The new availability of the Garden in the late
afternoon was well-received by visitors, but initially the late evening period
was poorly attended. Our advertising of the Garden’s extended opening hours
improved after a few months, culminating in an article in the Courier which significantly
improved people’s access to and enjoyment of the Garden. You can read that
article in this newsletter courtesy of DC Thompson. One notable related success
was the putting greens introduced by Bob Sutherland and his staff and this will
certainly continue In the coming year. On balance, with good advertising,
evening opening is viable, and I would hope that a further attempt is made in
2019, particularly now the V&A Dundee has opened.
Connecting the Garden directly with the Waterfront with the aim of
improving footfall, continues to be a major objective of the Friends through
the River Line linear garden project.
I am pleased to say that the City Council, following the Dundee Decides 2018
vote, appointed Fairhurst Ltd (Consulting Structural and Civil Engineers) to
perform a feasibility study of all aspects of the project, but focussing
particularly on the engineering obstacles and possible solutions. I and a
number from Fairhurst and partner companies have walked the route west of
Magdalen Green to establish some initial proposals. The next step will be a
meeting of all stakeholders to test the viability of these proposals, and I
hope to be able to report to you in the next newsletter that we got a positive
response from those attending. We are at a critical point for this project.
Another important initiative this year was the Friends’ attempt to demonstrate
that the Garden could be a suitable venue for Social Prescribing, or more
particularly, Green Prescribing, where GPs and other clinical personnel
prescribe exercise and outdoor pursuits in addition to, or as alternatives to,
clinical interventions. You will find a fuller discussion of this trial in this
newsletter, in which therapeutic art classes made use of the Garden environment
and materials to engage with a small number of people from one Ninewells
outpatient clinic and one GP practice.
I am pleased to say, that after a long period of trying, significant
progress has been made with the proposal for a view point over the river. A
design has now been agreed between the Garden and the Friends with significant
extensions to ensure a more flexible contribution to the Garden. Bob Sutherland
is now taking this forward.
This past year the Friends got more involved with the allotments at the
west end of the Garden. We were pleased to provide a 6’x8’ greenhouse at the
request of the allotment committee, ably led by Jade Cawthry-Syms at the time.
We also prepared one of the plots as a garden for children and led a series of
events during late spring and summer engaging with a small number of children
from the Friends’ membership. Pictures from some of these events can be found
on the Friends’ blog.
During late summer our Anthology project received its final submissions
from artists and writers. Four guest editors were invited by the Anthology
committee - consisting of well-respected local artists and writers - to
consider all the submissions and that process is now coming to an end. We will
shortly move on to the design phase where selected material will be
incorporated into an attractive whole. This has proved a challenging project,
but I am hopeful our objectives will be achieved.
During 2018 we continued to offer our regular events. We undoubtedly
had our best Summer Gathering yet, where we introduced a ceilidh, encouraging
everyone to take part and get to know each other. The day was opened and closed
by Krzystof our piper and the food was again provided by Yorkes of Dundee. Most
significantly, this year’s gathering allowed the Friends to say goodbye to our
curator in the presence of so many members and their guests. I and our honorary
president Frances Tait reflected on Alasdair’s contribution to the Garden over
nearly 20 years, the garden of evolution and the native plants area offering a
permanent reminder of his imagination and leadership over this period. The
following day, members of the committee had lunch with Alasdair at the View
restaurant in Wormit as a final farewell.
We also took responsibility for the Garden’s summer fun run, which
Alasdair would normally have organised. This proved very successful with over
100 runners taking part of all ages and abilities. We now have two fun runs to
handle each year in January and May, and I thank those members who make this
possible by offering their time. Similar thanks to those who staffed our stall
at the Food and Flower Festival this year, for which the Garden received a
prize.
I am pleased to say we had a very good candidate – Darren McGarey - for
this year’s Friends’ Hugh Ingram bursary. Initially serving in the army, he
attended Perth College as an introduction to horticulture and subsequently gained
work experience with the Shaw Trust. The Garden staff were pleased to have him
on board.
Finally, with the retirement of the curator and the impending
retirement of other members of the Garden staff, the Friends have initiated a
memory project to collect oral histories of the Garden from former and current
staff, members of the Friends and previous committees. These memories are
elicited through interviews with Eddie Small of Dundee University and many
hours of recording have been taken. Our hope is that consolidated versions of
these will form the basis of our next (and my final) newsletter. In this
respect, we would be interested in hearing from members of the Friends who have
taken photographs of the Garden over the last 40 years, which we might be able
to tie to the testimony provided. Please feel free to get in touch by email.
