The Burriss Bursary

This is an annual bursary for a non-professional artist in Prestonpans and Vicinity to create a 'new' work that will join the permanent collection at The Arts Festival.

The bursary is for £2000 invested over 12 months with applications considered each June for the following year.

The Terms for the Burriss Bursary are linked here.

Jeannette Burriss was an art teacher in the vicinity most of her life, but as an art student took for her dissertation topic the historical buildings of Prestonpans. The dissertation has been turned into a small booklet and now offered for sale by The Arts Festival with the proceeds going towards the bursary.

The booklet is viewable here on line - Historical Survey of Prestonpans - or can be ordered in hard copy at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg or here online.

The inaugural winner was June Coull for 2004/ 2005. She gave an Exhibition at the year end of her work at The Prestoungrange Gothenburg and greeted the incoming artists for the following year.

There were joint bursary winners for 2005/ 2006, Adele Robertson and Margaret Fraser. Following the precedent set by June Coull, they exhibited in July 2006 for four weeks commencing Gothenburg Day, 23rd.

That was also the day the 2006/ 2008 Awards Winners Patrick Fox and Gardener Molloy were announced in the run-up to The Goth's Centenary Year. The year's applications were so outstanding that the occasion saw a total of five Bursaries and Fellowships in all announced to everyone's delight including The Lord Novar and Sir John Ross Fellowships for the first time, and a Bursary from the Battle of Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Trust. Full details are reported here.

The Exhibition of Burris Bursary works by Patrick Fox and interim reports from others on July 23rd 2007 was a particularly special occasion as the Lord Mayor of Goteborg who visited on the same date in 2003 returned at his own request "to see how we have progressed".

The 2008/ 2009 Awards went to a trio committed to theatrical and musical activity. The Awards were made by Linda Fabiani MSP, Minister of Culture, and she also viewed an Exhibition of 100 Paintings by the Art Classes in recent years [subsequently published] and Gardener Molloy's Mr Buchannan sculpture. The trio have worked with The Prestoungrange Gothenburg to create regular 'open mike' sessions; re-enactment scenes along the Murals Trail including the dedication of Tom Ewing's Summerlee; and to present David Dorward's Aldhammer Suite with the Edinburgh based Philomusica during the Three Harbours Festival.

2009/ 2010 Awards saw Tom Ewing, born a Summerlee Panner, create 45 x 45 line drawings and Kerry Henderson, an accomplished photographer, turn her hand to painting. And 2010/ 2011 breaks the mould again with an art deco Poster Competition for the 'delights' of the local community to appear as a calendar or 2011.