Citizen Firefighter by Kenny Hunter is now the subject of a book, published jointly by the CCA Glasgow and Strathclyde Fire Brigade on 23rd July. The statue became a focus for tributes to fire-fighters after September 11th. The author of the book is Francis McKee. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be available yet from Amazon, but try ordering it through your local book-store.

A New Scottish Arts Centre is being planned for the West End of Glasgow. It is expected to cost £3.5m to convert the former Kelvinside Parish Church, on the corner of Byres Road and Great Western Road. Besides dance and performance spaces and a café-bar, it is also planned to have paintings and sculpture by leading Scottish artists. Thankfully, previous plans by developers to turn the former church into flats fell through, leaving the way open for Colin Beattie to make more appropriate use of the space.
(Source: The Herald, 22 July 2002.)

Rottenrow Maternity Hospital, Townhead, Glasgow, was closed last year and is now in the process of being demolished in small sections. Strathclyde University, who own the site, were so inundated with requests for souvenir building bricks from parents whose children were born in the famous hospital, that they have produced paperweights from the rubble. The paperweights bear either the hospital's crest or a baby's face and sell for £10 each. The hospital will be the subject of an hour-long TV programme tracing the history of the hospital, to be made by Lion Productions, and to be screened in the autumn. Not all the hospital will disappear, however; two doorways which bear the hospital's crest will be preserved.
(Source: Evening Times, 26 July 2002.)

WASPS (Workers and Artists Studio Space Scotland) will soon have a new centre if plans, still at the consultation stage, go ahead to turn the former Victorian fish market, the Briggait, into Glasgow's Artists' Centre. In the 1980's the Briggait was made into a gourmet food market, but this failed in the early 1990's. Since then several and varied attempts have been made to find another use for it, but none ever got off the ground. Good Luck to the WASPS!

A stone circle created by the sculptor Antony Gormley has been unveiled in London. Gormley won a competition in 1987 to create the work at the British Library. It consists of eight one-ton granite boulders carved with human figures. Antony Gormley won the Turner Prize in 1994 and is the creator of the Angel of the North at Gateshead. He is also the subject of this month's Book Choice.

Coats of Arms in a sorry state was the subject of an article in the Country Life magazine of 30th May last. It gives examples of neglected coats of arms from around Britain. This stone plaque carved with the Royal Arms of Charles II can be found on the Pearce Lodge, University of Glasgow, Gilmorehill. This has been quite badly neglected; the colour and gilding are worn, the unicorn's head is missing and the lion's shoulder is crumbling.
The photograph is by Gary Nisbet.

David Mach's new exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art is still on. You have until September 29th to get along there. You can see more of David Mach's work on his own website at http://www.davidmach.com.