Future in Hand

The Apple Garden was a community garden for the largest Home Zone project in Scotland in the Woodhall Area of Port Glasgow and focused on a specially commissioned piece of public art by Nina Saunders, a Danish Sculptor. The sculpture itself was designed after a series of workshops conducted with Port Glasgow High School Pupils.

Continuing on the decline of the ship building industry on the Clyde this area of Woodhall now sees some of the most deprived housing conditions in Scotland. The Roberts Street community had grown up around the local ship-building industry, now all but gone. The industry and the river will be forever be inextricably linked. The land had previously been orchards supplying fruit for the market in Glasgow, hence the name "The Apple Garden" the garden itself was designed by Rebecca Wells and completed in 2006.

The sculpture incorporates the apple to reflect the orchards, a depiction of the Comet to represent the ship building industry and the hand cradling the past to support the future. Sadly the garden has done little to improve the standard of housing in this area, it is an area condemned as "a bad area" but like many such areas there are a lot of good people living here blighted by the reputation created by the few... a sad indictment of how society perceives an address.

This is a very tactile piece of art, most people, even locals are probably oblivious to its existence never venturing to "the other side of the tracks" but they should and take a moment to reflect on how lucky they are