29
August 2000. Portrait
Gallery's Scottish History Frieze: SCRAN Internet Launch.
Venue
National Portrait
Gallery
Address
Queen Street,
Edinburgh
Reporter
Pat Napier
GREAT SCOTS
In the evening of Tuesday
29 August 2000, a small, select group gathered in the entrance hall
of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery for a very special, 21st
century event: the launching onto the Internet of the virtual images
of the famous and much-loved Scottish History frieze painted by William
Hole in 1898. Up to now, generations of Scots have had to come to
Queen Street to gaze on the famous folk depicted at first floor level,
to chart their place in the procession running round all four sides
then go home to study their lives.
Now, for the very first time in Scotland's history, future generations
will be able to study the Frieze from their own computers by accessing
the SCRAN database. And a steadily-increasing number of Scottish schools
(currently 75%, though the figures grow daily) will now have the opportunity
to teach our country's history in an exciting new way, using the Frieze's
people as a focus and as jumping-off point for the times in which
they lived.
The assembled group included Sir David Steele and all the Directors
of the National Galleries and Museums of Scotland. The importance
of this event was reflected in the fact that there was not one but
two Ministers present to launch the Frieze into cyberspace.
After welcoming the visitors Timothy
Clifford, the Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, invited
Rhona Brankyn, the Scottish Executive's Culture Minster, to inaugurate
the Frieze project. He then asked Chris Smith, as Chairman of the
Millenium Commission, to speak about SCRAN and its funding to digitise
Scotland's cultural and material heritage. Chris remarked that, since
the Frieze ended with Thomas Carlyle, he hoped that someone would
be commissioned to bring it up to date with a new work in another
significant location.
Bruce Royan, SCRAN's Chief Executive Officer, then spoke a few words
in reply before formally inviting Chris Smith to press the computer
mouse button to take the Frieze project live for the first time. From
that moment on, the guests clustered round the computer like bees
round a honey pot, eager to try out the system and make their own
discoveries. And that's how it stayed till the end of the evening.
So now, people will not
need to come to Queen Street to see the frieze but they will,
because even with these exciting new facilities, there is no substitute
for seeing the real thing in situ. However, they will have been able
to do their homework first and will have a fabulous new ability to
assess what they expect to see when they get there.
Bruce
Royan, Rhona Brankyn, Chris Smith and Timothy Clifford
Photograph:
© Mark Mainz
For more information go to: http://www.scran.ac.uk/frieze/
and: http://www.natgalscot.ac.uk
index>>
