This was one of my first big projects at the Craigmillar now centre, where a community made Mural of the Photographer Sandra George was found in council storage and donated to the centre by a member of the community in 2021. 

​

The Mural was created as part of a youth project celebrating Sandra Georges life and work created within the Craigmillar and Niddrie community created by local school children in the Niddrie House community centre in 2014. Created out of 100s of upcycled bottle lids for me is a wonderful example of community upcycling and creativity that really deserves to be on display once more. 

sadly several years in storage hadn't fared too well for the mural, it accumulated so much grime and the back bord it was made on had split. with serval lids falling off it was clear this piece of community art needed soap, time and a whole lot of TLC to bring the mural back to life. over the early months of 2022 I decided to take upon the task of giving this mural a second chance whilst showing and sharing its wonderful story with the community archive group, cleaning each individual bottle lid over several weeks and drawing up plans for the repair of the backboard to ensure its future survival and hopeful future display as part of the archiving centre.

​

This was important to me as a early project for upon joining the Craigmillar now community I learned about Sandra George's incredible work as a photographer. Sandra captured through the magic of photography, the day to day life, changes and livelihood's of the community. From single mothers to parades, construction sites to proud local businesses, over the decades she created a incredible snapshot of day to day life in Craigmillar and Niddrie over the late 1980s up until the early 2000s capturing emotion, change and the character in the places and people she photographed.

​

With the opening of the Craigmillar Now archive in November 2020 Sandra George's incredible archive of negatives and photographs where donated soon after and became the cornerstone and first big archiving project we took in the archive. By June 2022 the last of her negatives where archived to safe accessible storage and her collection is preserved as part of the archive for the community to see and explore. Recently over the autumn of 2022 there has been a exhibition of her photographic highlights at the White house Café for the local community to explore and learn about her wonderful work and legacy. 

​

​

​

 

​

​

​

​