“Presenting PEOPLE, PLAYS and PICTURES at the HARBOUR ARTS CENTRE, 1966-1987”
with
additional material covering the history of the following 20 years
Originally published as a 21st anniversary booklet in 1987 (text by Ian Dickson), here updated for the web.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: The Beginnings - chapters 1 to 5 appear on the same web page

Chapter 2: The Early Years

Chapter 3: Special Interest Groups

Chapter 4: Harbour Theatre

Chapter 5: Renovation, Re-opening and Borderline

Chapter 6: Visiting drama at the Centre - chapters 6 to 15 appear on the same web page

Chapter 7: Music, Dance, Poetry and Talks

Chapter 8: The Harbour Gallery

Chapter 9: Social activities

Chapter 10: Who's Who at the Centre

Chapter 11: Summer Schemes & Summer Schools

Chapter 12: HAC (Irvine) Limited 1984

Chapter 13: Assistance from MSC

Chapter 14: Acknowledgements

Chapter 15: Looking Ahead (the 1987 chapter)

Chapter 16: The years 1987-2007 (a brief summary)

FOREWORD

Twenty-one years of achievement have justified the hopes and efforts of the small group of friends who thought that the time and the place were ripe for the formation of an Arts Centre. A great deal of faith was needed when you looked at the place - Barnet House and the rather derelict harbour area served by the Fergushill bus twice in an evening. There were not many casual passers-by on a winter evening or wet week-ends.

The New Town was not yet a reality. The leisure centre was only an idea, but slowly all that changed and the area is now the hub of activity not only for the New Town but for much further afield. The Arts Centre sits at the foot of the Magnum, a prime position, and attracts companies from all over the country (and even abroad).

So many people helped in the early days when everything was done voluntarily. It needed a rota of thirty-six people to keep an Art Exhibition open for two weeks. It is not possible to name all these members who were sometimes with us only a short time and sometimes for years and years. The problem of keys - who had them and where they were - was constantly with us and as there was no telephone in the Centre help for constantly recurring emergencies was hard to get quickly. But all who have been members can look back on their own involvement at the Centre with visiting artists, actors, musicians and members of the public and feel that they themselves benefited and that they made a very real contribution to leisure and enjoyment in their own town and their own country - for drama groups and writers and artists of all kinds cannot find themselves on television or the national theatrical scene without the interest and understanding of all of us to sustain them in their early years. And where are these plays and exhibitions to be seen if we do not provide theatres and galleries?

The successes, failures, changes and experiments at the Harbour Arts Centre have made twenty-one years fly in. When you look at the list of events, you indeed wonder how they were all fitted in. The changes in our physical environment since 1966 have been great but in the next few years, bringing us into the twenty-first century, we will face even more important changes in work duration and leisure. We should not be daunted, however, for around us can still be seen the remains of theatres built by earlier generations, plays written centuries ago are still performed, more pictures are bought and painted. Even in the most technical age people will want to act, make music and enjoy the visual arts. It is for this that the H.A.C. exists and let us hope it will go on playing an important part for us all for many years to come.

Moreen Shields

HEADNOTE
- a note received before the new Centre's volunteer evening in 2007

Twenty-one am really sorry, as I would have loved to be there, especially as it was my exhibition of paintings that was the opening event of the Centre [1966]! And then I was the first Exhibitions Convenor after Ian White gave up running the whole show single handed, and I also designed the original logo for HAC, which was used for years. So I figured quite a bit in the early years...

Actually, I probably have the longest connection of anyone with the building itself, as, when it was a seaman's mission, my grandfather was appointed missionary for a while, and my father was born in the little but an' ben which was alongside the reading room, immediately behind the hall, and which became the main exhibition area and cafe/bar. My father was one of a family of eleven children - amazing how they all fitted into the tiny four roomed cottage (although by then the oldest ones would probably have left home?) So it was doubly exciting for me when I took part in all the labouring and work that turned it into an Arts Centre in 1966.

Do please give my kindest regards on Tuesday to any who remember me. I do hope, when my health picks up, that I will be able to come through to visit HAC and its "new look"..

One of the newspaper photos that I have of the days when I was Exhibitions Convenor was taken when Richard Demarco loaned us paintings from his Edinburgh Gallery for a HAC exhibition in November 1968. The photo is of myself, Ricky, and Walter Shields, the Chairman of the Arts Centre, at the private view. Ricky used to say that we were the only cultural establishment in the south west, which was maybe true, as we were probably the only Arts Centre then?

Avril J D Gilmore

floor plan as in 1965-1973 see our photos page	floor plan as in 1974-2005 in the 1980s a porch was built around the street door to buffer against winds, and the unused west door area between the office and darkroom was incorporated into the office to enlarge it

and as in 2007 (different scale)