Burntisland CommunARTY to celebrate town's creativity and fundraise for skate park

The first ever Burntisland CommunARTY is being held in the town’s Toll Centre on Saturday, May 11 bringing people together through art and their creativity – while helping fundraise for the local skate park.

The event is the brain child of local resident, artist and mum of three boys, Kerrie Jarvie and she’s hoping the community will get behind it.

She explained: “I spend a lot of time at the community skate park with my three boys and it always makes me sad that it is not a vibrant welcoming park. It has the most amazing backdrop of the beach and it is in a prime location for locals and visitors to the town. It’s visited by so many people, yet it’s looking a bit sad.

"That was the initial driving force behind the event as I wanted to try and raise money to have it painted.

"Then I started to think about other areas around the town where we could add some colour to make Burntisland just a little bit more beautiful and foster a strong sense of pride in our community. If people are involved in the creation of art then they are more likely to want to look after it and that’s how the community art challenges were born and what has driven the CommunARTY event.

“I wanted to curate an event that showcased all of the local talent and covered all the arts – painting, illustration, mixed media, digital art, photography, grafts, creative writing, sewing, knitting, etc – and challenged people artistically to celebrate Burntisland.

"There are so many creative people in the town I thought it would be lovely to have an event celebrating all things art related and to showcase people’s creations.”

In a bid to inspire the town’s creatives and budding artists, Kerrie set some community art challenges for people to get involved in, including using a place or person in Burntisland as inspiration for your creation; creating a bollard cover; making a bird feeder or bird house; writing a poem about Burntisland and creating a design for the skate park repaint.

The Toll Centre will be transformed into an art exhibition space on Saturday where all of the community art challenges will be displayed.

Alongside the community’s creations will be works by some of the local professional artists who will talk about their creative processes, as well as community groups promoting the work they do and some live music and poetry.

Entry to the event is free, but a raffle and home baking on the day will be fundraising for the skate park.

Kerrie said: “People have been really enthusiastic about it and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s creations.

"It’s going to be a good event and I hope people come along and see for themselves how creative people in Burntisland really are.

"They can come along, have a read of the poetry, listen to music, check out everyone’s work and learn more about the creative groups we have here and the opportunities they present.”

Full details of all that’s happening can be found at www.facebook.com/groups/724871926148454