Date: Mar 5, 2010
Subject: Late artist’s family backs arts centre plan

The family of one of Dunfermline’s most distinguished artists has come out in support of ambitious proposals to convert the city’s fire station into a community creative arts centre.

James Cumming RSA, RSW, died in 1991 after a long career as one of the country’s leading artists.

Now, his widow Elizabeth (Betty) and sister-in-law Jess Cumming, who lives in Limekilns, say that creating an arts centre in the fire station would have “absolutely delighted” James, and have offered to help the campaign in any way they can.

“This is a marvellous proposal and I know Jim would have given it his complete support”, said Jess (81).

Born in Dunfermline in 1922, Cumming attended Dunfermline High School and studied at Edinburgh College of Art before and after the Second World War.

A travelling scholarship which saw him spend a year at Callanish on Lewis helped him to establish his artistic credentials, his series of Hebridean paintings having attracted much critical acclaim. His paintings have been described as being “immaculately worked”.

Cumming lectured at Edinburgh College of Art from 1950 to 1982 and he continued to paint at his Borders home until shortly before his death.

His sister-in-law Jess, who owns three of Cumming’s works, said both she and the artist’s widow, who lives in Devizes, had been following the fire station campaign, led by networking organisation Dunfermline Arts and Media (DAM), with great interest and were wholeheartedly behind the proposal.

“I know for sure that Jim would have been absolutely delighted to see an art centre in Dunfermline,”  said Jess, a former teacher.

“I can’t speak on her behalf but I am sure that she would be happy to loan some of Jim’s work to the fire station, if it ever becomes an art centre. It would be a wonderful space in which to exhibit artwork.”

Jess said that she would like to loan some books to the fire station gallery, including a retrospective of Cumming’s work and a new book on portraiture, ‘A Face to  the World’, by Jim’s daughter, Laura, an art critic on the Observer newspaper.

She added that there were two pieces she would particularly like to be shown in the fire station: ‘Man of St Kilda’, by Cumming, and a tapestry, ‘Sir Patrick Spens’, created by his wife Betty, who also attended Edinburgh School of Art. Both currently hang in the Carnegie Central Library, Dunfermline.

Her idea has inspired a suggestion by DAM co-founder Ian Moir that a new contemporary arts centre might one day host a major retrospectiveve of work by Dunfermline’s leading artists: Cumming, Sir Joseph Noel Paton RSA and Adam Westwood RSA.

“It may be that the heritage museum proposed for Dunfermline could also host such an exhibition”, said Mr Moir. “Together, the museum and an arts centre could help to establish Dunfermline on the cultural map and provide a fitting showcase for some of the best artwork this country has produced.”