A leading Scottish writer has called for artists to be in residence at all of Scotland's major institutions.
Angus Peter Campbell, the award winning poet, speaking at an event to celebrate the late Dr Gavin Wallace, Creative Scotland's former head of literature, said that institutions as disparate as the National Galleries, the Bank of Scotland, Hibernian Football Club and Murrayfield Stadium should find space for artists in their midst.
Mr Campbell, a poet, novelists, journalist and actor, who writes in Gaelic and English, has been a writer in residence at the National Library of Scotland as part of being the third recipient of the Gavin Wallace Fellowship.
In a short speech at the event, which included readings and music, he said: "Not only should the National Library of Scotland have a Gavin Wallace Fellowship, a scriver's residency, but they should have a dancer in residence, a musician in residence, a chamber group in residence, a visual artist in residence, a dramaturg in residence and so on and so forth.
"And more importantly, all the great institutions of Scotland, ought to be hosting - not as charity but as an expression of their existence in a civic Scotland - artists or artist's groups on the premises.
"Imagine a Scotland where the BBC, the Holyrood Parliament, the National Gallery of Scotland, the National Portrait Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art, the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Bank of Scotland, the University of Edinburgh, Hibernian Football Club, George Heriot's School, Murrayfield Rugby Stadium [had artists in residence] and I am only touching the surface of corporate Edinburgh.
"Imagine if these great national institutions took a leaf out of the National Library's book, and hosted a ballet company at Easter Road, imagine that, a theatre company down at Murrayfield, then maybe we could maybe we could shape the kind of Scotland that both [Robert] Burns and Gavin Wallace would have been proud of."
Also speaking at the event were Morag Joss, the writer and Dr Wallace's sister, Gerda Stevenson, the writer and actress, and the author James Robertson, who read an excerpt from his new novel as well as three poems by Hugh MacDiarmid.
The fellowship was set up by the national arts funding body Creative Scotland in 2013, in memory of Dr Wallace, the former head of literature at the organisation.
Mr Campbell, who is a regular contributor to Herald Scotland, was invited to "explore - and be inspired by - the ways in which the Library’s collections reflect Scotland's past and present."
Mr Campbell has published four collections of poetry and six Gaelic novels.
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