New willow sculpture by artist David Powell has been installed to celebrate Stranraer Oyster Festival and the community that created it. The artwork depicts a giant open oyster and shucking knife, and now has a permanent home on Stranraer's waterfront.
New oyster sculpture unveiled
A striking new sculpture celebrating Stranraer Oyster Festival has been unveiled on the town's waterfront.
The three-metre-high sculpture depicts giant open oysters, complete with shucking knife, woven entirely from willow.
The artwork, created by artist David Powell, celebrates the wild, native oysters of Loch Ryan and Stranraer Oyster Festival that celebrates them.
It was commissioned by Stranraer Development Trust, the community organisation behind the oyster festival, funded by Dumfries and Galloway Council's Coastal Benefit Fund, and installed this week. The ribbon was cut by Cllr Andrew Giusti to recognise the work he did to get Stranraer named as the region’s official ‘Oyster Town’. Board and staff members of Stranraer Development Trust were also present.
Stranraer Oyster Festival launched in 2017 as a community-led regeneration project, created to change the story of the former ferry port after the relocation of the ferry terminal to Cairnryan. Celebrating Scotland's last wild, native oyster fishery, found in the waters of Loch Ryan, the festival has grown from 10,000 visitors in its first year to around 30,000 today, and has generated millions of pounds of economic impact for the local area.
For Romano Petrucci, Chair of Stranraer Development Trust, the sculpture is the realisation of an ambition he has held for a decade.
"My family comes from Viareggio in Tuscany, home of the famous Carnival of Viareggio. Every year when I go back, I see a magnificent carnival sculpture that sits on the promenade there, all year round, a permanent reminder of what that community has built together. It always stayed with me that here in Stranraer we had nothing to show for our festival outside those three days in September, so I am delighted that we now have a year-round focal point to mark what our community has achieved.
"This sculpture is for the people of Stranraer. It belongs to everyone who has volunteered, everyone who has shucked an oyster, sold a ticket, put up a gazebo in the rain, and everyone who simply turned up and made the festival what it is. Every day of the year it will remind us of what this community has created, and of what we can achieve when we come together.”
Stranraer Development Trust extended its thanks to everyone who helped bring the sculpture to Stranraer, including the commissioning panel of Allan Jenkins, Jenny Buchanan and Romano Petrucci; the Community Reuse Shop, who assisted artist David Powell with the transportation of the sculpture in time for Stranraer Oyster Festival next month; and Dumfries and Galloway Council's Coastal Benefit Fund, which funded the commission.
