Behind the scenes

 The fact I have to open my office window every day and my cactus looks as if it’s dying tells me that summer is finally here! Only a few weeks until the school summer holidays start in Scotland and most people are sunburnt already.

At Prestongrange, David’s Red Hot Pokers are looking lovely and survived the hectic Three Harbours Arts Festival. The opening night saw the museum play host to wonderful choirs, dancers and musicians. Staff also got into the swing of things by dressing up as characters from the museum’s past. As Christine and Claire walked across the site it looked as if we’d suddenly gone back in time! Unfortunately we didn’t make it into the East Lothian Courier’s photographs. Better luck next time!

 In Dunbar, John Muir’s Birthplace continue their hectic schedule with a visit this week from pupils from Yosemite Valley School in California. A huge thanks goes to all the host families who have went out of their way to make the children feel at home whilst they are here! 

 Dunbar Townhouse is currently in a state of flux as the next exhibition, Band of Brothers, is due to open this week. If you happen to be passing, don’t let the scaffolding put you off, there’s lots of great things to see inside.

 Apart from that, plans for the John Gray Centre march on. Our online survey is now ready to roll. If you want to have a say in how the centre develops (it will include a museum, library and archives) then complete the online questionnaire.

As part of our Grundtvig Project I went on a trip to Compton Verney, an art gallery in Warwickshire, from 27th-29th of April.

The gallery is set in picturesque grounds and has a specially built learning centre - which I was very envious of! The gallery is a charity, funded by the Peter Moores Foundation, and only opened in 2004. As well as meeting with other partners from Italy and Hungary who are part of the project, we also had the chance for a tour of the galleries. At present their temporary exhibitions are by James Coleman and Alberto Giacometti. Both were presented really well and, although the James Coleman piece included a very strong Irish accent, all nationalities seemed to appreciate both!

Now onto the actual work of the Grundtvig project, the creation of the Our East Lothian website. Have a look and add your comments about one of our photographs - at the moment the focus is on World War Two.