The winning artist will design a lasting tribute honouring Spark\u2019s literary legacy which will be permanently installed in a prominent location within the historic gardens in central Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
The project is fully funded by local philanthropists and marks the first time a woman will be commemorated in the gardens in their 200-year history. Spark was an acclaimed Scottish writer who was born in Bruntsfield in 1918 and passed away almost 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
According to the brief: \u2018A lasting tribute is being created in Edinburgh to honour one of Scotland\u2019s most distinguished writers, Muriel Spark.<\/p>\n
\u2018The memorial, which will be situated in East Princes Street Gardens, will celebrate her extraordinary literary legacy and lifelong connection to her birthplace, marking her rightful place alongside\u00a0Sir Walter Scott\u00a0and\u00a0Robert Louis Stevenson\u00a0as one of Edinburgh\u2019s defining literary voices.<\/p>\n
\u2018[While] literary recognition is significant, the impact of commemorating Muriel Spark here creates additional resonance. It will be the first time that a woman has been commemorated in the Gardens in the 200 years of their existence.<\/p>\n
\u2018This initiative is fully funded by Edinburgh philanthropists Morag and James Anderson, who have supported cultural initiatives across Edinburgh and Scotland for over 30 years.\u00a0 It has the full support of Penelope Jardine, Muriel Spark\u2019s companion of 30 years.\u2019<\/p>\n
Princes Street Gardens is a pair of city centre green spaces which were created in the early 19th century by the draining of the historic Nor Loch during the construction of Edinburgh New Town.<\/p>\n
The sunken city-centre park is situated beneath Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street, and is home to many landmark features including the churches of St John\u2019s and St Cuthbert\u2019s, the Scottish National Gallery<\/a> and the Ross Pavilion which was the focus of contest-winning upgrade proposals by wHY<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Muriel Spark Memorial competition is open to artists of any discipline with at least three years\u2019 worth of professional experience. The first stage seeks online expressions of interest via the Zealous procurement platform.<\/p>\n Up to four shortlisted artists will be funded to develop concept designs ahead of a final selection. The overall winner will be awarded a commission to create the artwork.<\/p>\n Competition details<\/p>\n Project title<\/strong> Muriel Spark Memorial
Client<\/strong> Spirit of Spark Steering Group \/ City of Edinburgh Council
Contract value<\/strong> \u00a3100,000
First round deadline<\/strong> 11 January 2026
Restrictions<\/strong> Minimum three years\u2019 professional practice; artists in any discipline eligible
More information<\/strong>\u00a0https:\/\/spiritofspark.info\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The winning artist will design a lasting tribute honouring Spark\u2019s literary legacy which will be permanently installed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-590953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115605276247356554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}