Even with hindsight, we can’t help but be satisfied with this celebration of the last week of September 2024*. There was a lot of positive feedback and a large, enthusiastic audience. Admittedly, there weren’t as many people on 27th September as at the inaugural preview the week before, but they matched the average attendance at our cultural events.
In all, the association reached around a hundred people including the opening cocktail of the Ian Scott exhibition at the mediatheque and the three lectures organized at the Centre Culturel de Port-Vendres. The Mackintosh Center in Port-Vendres welcomed over sixty visitors during the weekend, which coincided with the Heritage Days.
But perhaps you’d like to know more!
First, let’s take a look behind the scenes. This anniversary could not have been the success it was without…
- The warm and helpful welcome from the team at the Port-Vendres media library. Thank you, Bénédicte, Margaux and Christine.
- Our Micro folie partners, Sophia and Patrick, who, thanks to the miracles of technology, transported us to Charles and Margaret’s house at the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow.
- The ten or so owners of Ian Scott’s pastels and sketches (one of the founders of our association, let’s not forget) who willingly lent us their works for the duration of the exhibition and agreed to leave them with us for another week in view of the success with visitors. Many thanks to Saïd AOUAD, Mr and Mrs BARRETEAU, Mr and Mrs CAPELL, Mr and Mrs GRAU, James HOGAN, Mrs LABOUS, Mr and Mrs RAUPP, Kevin ROACH, James TERRY and the Port-Vendres Town Hall.
- The commitment and dedication of the dozen or so volunteers (yes, there were only twelve!), who designed the 20th anniversary programme, the Ian Scott exhibition and communication materials, distributed flyers, liaised with the speakers, provided interpreting and translation services, hung, took down and packed the artist’s works, prepared the venues for the events and the buffets, tidied up the food in record time, manned the reception desks and I am sure there is more… Thank you, Christine, Clara, Dominique, Gilbert, Gilberte, Irène, Isabelle, Jacques, Linda, Madeleine, Michèle and Sylvie.
- The kind availability of our speakers, all of whom provided high-quality performances and shed new light on Mackintosh’s work. Peter Trowles, a member of the CRM Society and former curator of the prestigious Glasgow School of Art, travelled specially from Glasgow to talk to us about Mackintosh design, a theme that we have only just touched on in the Port-Vendres centre. The theme was taken up by Catherine Blin, who put Mackintosh’s chairs and lighting in the cinema spotlight. James Trollope also came from the UK to talk to us about Mackintosh’s British artist friends who stayed in Collioure. Thank you to all three of them.