BISHOP, ELIZABETH (1968 - ) – Stirling Council's Director of Culture and Leisure. As an occasional voluntary guide and guardian of the semi-permanent Hamilton Coe exhibition, I was present at Drumfeld Museum when Ms Bishop visited, proclaiming her intention of making the Drumfeld experience ‘more relevant' to visitors. In my experience, the word ‘relevant', nearly always misused, should trigger alarm: it seldom augurs anything other than fatheadedness.

Within days of her visit, Ms Bishop had ordered the removal of the Hamilton Coe exhibition from the Scott Room, replacing it with a collection of photographs taken by disabled Dundonians. One can only conjecture why she imagined this to be ‘more relevant' to people in Drumfeld than the career of the town's most celebrated inhabitant. The Hamilton Coe exhibits, incidentally, many on loan from the Hamilton Coe archive at Glasgow University, were deposited in bins awaiting collection by the refuse department. Only my unscheduled appearance prevented their destruction. See Also EVERETT, STEPHEN; PIRIE, ROBERT; URE, WILLIAM

Liz Bishop

 

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