Angus fans of a famed cultural county son will have to dig deeper into their own resources to see a tribute to him in print.
The Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh is to be one of the venues for the launch of the first book covering the life and work of Montrose-born sculptor William Lamb, a long-held dream of Montrose Heritage Trust and the Friends of William Lamb.
But the grand event will go ahead without £5,000 of Angus Council support after a second grant bid for what the authority’s leader previously tagged an ‘ego project’ was overwhelmingly rejected.
The community grant scheme application had been knocked back by infrastructure services committee members but was referred to the full council for consideration, where an impassioned plea by MHT chairman Dr Andrew Orr foundered against further condemnation of the business plan for the publication of the work.
It pointed to criticism over the authority’s level of annual subsidy provided to support the William Lamb studio in Montrose.
Dr Orr told councillors that Lamb was “arguably one of the most significant sculptors and artists in Scotland in the 20th century”.
“He left an incredible legacy his studio and the bulk of his work to the people of Angus. This is in the ownership of Angus Council and is surely one of the most significant and valuable cultural assets held by this county.”
Dr Orr, who had already vowed that the high-quality publication the result of five years’ meticulous research by local man John Stansfeld will be printed with or without the council cash and said it was his view that the project “fitted like a hand into the glove of the Angus Council community grants scheme”.
“What we are doing complies exactly with the aims,” Dr Orr told councillors.
Montrose councillors David May and Mark Salmond led the bid to overturn the earlier committee refusal, with Mr May suggesting that the benefits of the project would be “considerable”.
“Getting to this stage has involved a fantastic amount of work and we as a county will positively benefit,” he said.
Fellow Montrose councillor Bill Duff said, however, that the Lamb studio support was already disproportionate to the amount of visitors the facility attracted.
He told members that some £47,000 of council support had been given to the studio over the past five years, including £40,000 of common good funding.
“As a council we need to be much more hard-nosed about grants to support museums like this. We have spent a lot of money, with local members perhaps keen to support local interest groups.”
Council leader Iain Gaul layered further criticism on what he previously labelled a “white elephant” project by questioning Lamb’s standing in the artistic pantheon.
“He’s not a Da Vinci or a Picasso and if you ask people what they like about Lamb, they’ll say they like the curry,” he said.
“The five-year average for the William Lamb studio is 2.8 visitors on a Sunday and we don’t even know if that’s the Friends of William Lamb popping in to see their pals.
“We’re paying an average of £4 per head, per visitor to the William Lamb studio.
“The community grants scheme is to help community groups better themselves and this is not a community group, it’s an interest group. The officers made the right decision, a business decision, a logical decision this does not stack up.”
Council finance spokesman Alex King said: “The business case is just not there and we’re looking at a loss of over 95% on the costs of producing this book.
“I wasn’t aware it was costing us £10,000 a year to support only 404 visitors we’d be as well giving them £2.50 and telling them not to bother.”
The full council voted 18-9 not to award £5,000 from the community grants fund.