20 April 2009

Jute Bag challenge for school pupils

School pupils around Dundee are being challenged to use their creative skills to revive one of the city’s historic design traditions by making their own unique jute bale 'marks'.

The Jute Bag Project has been organised by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design and will see around 3000 jute bags - donated by the Natural Bag Company - being distributed to schools to allow the pupils to get to work on designing their bale marks.

Schools will be asked to select the best three designs from their pupils, all of which will be put on display and a public vote taken to decide the `People’s Favourite’, for which there will be a small cash award.

The challenge has been laid by the College - part of the University of Dundee - to coincide with the Society of Scottish Artists’ Annual Exhibition, which this year is being staged in the Vision Building in Dundee, in conjunction with the College. The SSA annual exhibition is traditionally held in the Royal Scottish Academy Galleries in Edinburgh.

The SSA exhibition will run alongside the college’s own annual Degree Show, which this year is also taking place in the Vision Building, from May 23rd to June 6th.

'Having the SSA exhibition here will be a unique event for Dundee and as part of this we are launching this educational project that we hope will prove to be a stimulating and creative process as well as acknowledging the Dundee context within its subject matter,' said Professor Elaine Shemilt, Chair of Fine Art Printmaking at Duncan of Jordanstone College.

'Since Dundee is synonymous with the jute trade, we felt it appropriate to use jute as our stimulus. The city was once famous for its jute industry and its legacy is deep rooted and still visible in all manner of ways from names of streets, parks and parts of the city to the building of grand mansions and public buildings, the expansion of the city’s harbour, shipbuilding and whaling industry, and the history of many business institutions to name but a few!'

Jute was transported back from India by ships in large bales, which were stamped with marks known as bale marks. The bale marks were used to identify the type and quality and the producer or seller of the raw jute.

Printed onto the side of the jute bales using a relief disc about the size of a side plate in width, the marks were generally quite simple and often geometric shapes or objects like stars or hearts.

'The aim of this project is for pupils to design their own personal bale mark which best identifies them and their personality,' said Professor Shemilt. 'Pupils may decide to retain the circular shape but they should feel free to explore and adapt the shape to suit their own idea, as we would love these to be as individual and creative as possible.'

The competition is mainly aimed at S5 and S6 pupils. Schools who wish to get involved should email jutefun@dundee.ac.uk with the following information:

1. School name
2. School art contact
3. How may bags you need for interested S5 and S6 pupils

The bags will be delivered to the schools. Once the bags are decorated schools should select the three best and deliver them to Duncan of Jordanstone College by the closing date of 15th May 2009 and mark them for the attention of Mhari MacDonald.

Cash prizes and DOJ master classes will be awarded to all winners.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk