Work is starting on North Lanarkshire’s Covid-19 memorial at Strathclyde Country Park.
Designed as a community gathering space, the memorial includes a circular plaza with curved seating, backed by art panels and surrounded by trees, bulbs and wildflowers.
The Remembering Together installation was co-designed by the community during a series of creative workshops led by artists John Martin Fulton and Russell McGovern working with 280 local people across 15 North Lanarkshire community groups.
The workshops explored people’s experiences and what they felt was lost and found during the pandemic, and used that to create ideas for how that experience could be remembered. A public consultation on the designs from the workshops was held, before the final design and layout was agreed. Blacksmith Agnes Jones has translated the ideas into steel reflecting the area’s industrial heritage.
Located near the beach car park, the memorial will also include a lectern with details of the creative process and information about the pandemic.
Councillor Helen Loughran, Convener of the Environment and Climate Change Committee, said: “The trees we have planted are the first stage in the creation of North Lanarkshire’s covid memorial, and will stand behind a curved seating area where people can come together to reflect and remember loved ones. Metalwork art panels include references to the experiences of local people before, during and after the pandemic.
“The memorial is intended to include memories of the difficult times, such as the isolation from family and friends, but also the strong community spirit shown as people helped each other during lockdowns and happier times as people were able to meet up again. I hope it will bring comfort and a sense of hope to residents.”
The project is part of the Scottish Government’s national Remembering Together project, giving each local authority the chance to reflect their unique experience of the Covid-19 pandemic with the help of commissioned artists and creative organisations.
The memorial is the first stand-alone element of an art park to be created in Strathclyde Country Park as part of the council’s Country Parks for the Future plan.