In his introduction to the first volume of The Evergreen: A New Season in the North (2014), Sean Bradley explains the choice of the Word Bank’s inaugural publication.
For a new Evergreen to be the Word Bank’s first publication could not be more appropriate. When Patrick Geddes & Colleagues published their Evergreen from Riddles Court in the Lawnmarket in 1895 and 1896, the arts of the Celtic Revival were their main sources of inspiration. They were academics and artists, living in the newly created Ramsay Garden, keenly aware of the need for cultural renewal. They wished to reconnect people to literature, arts and science as part of the drive for social improvement in the Old Town.
What now inspires Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust, the publishers of this volume, is primarily local experience: the upsurge in cooperative action evident in the growing number of Development Trusts across Scotland. Alongside growing political centralisation, there has been a flourishing of community activism – people from all walks of life working together: restoring land or building to productive use; providing services on behalf of local authorities; embarking on social business ventures. As Scotland debates what kind of country it wants to be, The Evergreen prompts a shifting of the question to our neighbourhoods: what kind of places do we want to live in? And what are we prepared to do about it?
Over the next two years the significance of The Evergreen heritage will be explored in four anthologies of new writing and visual art. It will urge us to look at our environment and how we relate to it. The debate about national identity must also be a question of local culture. How will citizens shape the distinctive life of their neighbourhood? In an increasingly homogenised society people are reduced to consumers literature and art through media and the growing number of cultural spectacles. The ‘arts’ – our writing, singing, and painting – need to become a part of our loves to inform the way we see ourselves, our places and our future.
The Evergreen: A New Season in the North is a collaboration with the University of Aberdeen and other Scottish universities. Patrick Geddes saw education as key to social improvement, and the events programme attending each volume of The Evergreen will reflect his approach, combining arts and sciences in a critical perspective on the way we live. As a first step we need to appreciate the differing perspectives and heritage of our neighbours. The sharing of knowledge, skills and debate will be the order of the day – common ground, shared ideals and collaborative action, the outcome.
Sean Bradley is the Managing Editor of the Word Bank and The Evergreen
[Published in The Evergreen Vol. I]
