Sister Cities 2022
Published on January 13, 2022
As many know, Stirling, Scotland, is the Sister City to Dunedin, Florida. The relationship began 58 years ago in 1964 when Dunedin invited Stirling to partner in a Sister City relationship to share ideas, culture, correspondence, visits, and goodwill between the two cities.
While the pandemic paused many Sister Cities' activities worldwide, a plan was hatched from both sides of the pond to reinvigorate the relationship between Dunedin and Stirling through an Art Loan with the Stirling Smith Museum. For the last 8 months work has taken place between the City and Caroline Mathers, Director of the Stirling Smith Museum to bring a piece of art work from The Smith collection to Dunedin. To accompany the piece, Caroline would also travel to Dunedin to see the sites, meet the residents, and attend several events – and what better week to travel than during the week of the Highland Games.
The piece of work selected from the collection happens to be Caroline's favorite piece of the collection, titled Spring Has Come by George Henry. The piece was painted in the 1930s, and while now thought of as fairly traditional artwork, it was radical at the time of the painting, rebelling against the traditional technical-styled art of the time. The shipping and arrival of the art was quite a process, including restoration work to the art and frame, crating of the piece, and shipping via special art handlers from the Smith Gallery to its current location at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. In addition to displaying the piece at the DFAC, the art center invited Caroline to serve as a judge for their student and member show held on April 2, 2022 and to unveil the painting and speak on the history of the piece. Spring Has Come will reside in the DFAC on display for the next several months and will move to the New City Hall in early October, where it will be displayed for the next two years before returning to The Smith Gallery. The piece is quite breathtaking in person and we hope all will take the time to visit and see this work while in Dunedin on loan from The Smith.
During Caroline's visit to Dunedin, there was nary a stone unturned or a site unvisited...and as her tour guide and host, clearly I spent too much time with Caroline as now I'm saying words like 'nary.' During her week-long stay, the City was happy to welcome her to a Blue Jays Game, the first American baseball game seen by Caroline. While the Jays didn't win, it was a beautiful day, and everyone was happy to be back in the Stadium. Caroline's tour included visiting the Dunedin Library, Fire Stations 60 & 61, the Dunedin History Museum, City Hall (both new and existing), Dunedin Highland Middle School, Honeymoon Island, Dunedin Marina & Edgewater Park, the Scottish American Society, and met many members from the Scottish Arts Foundation, the New World Celts, the Dunedin Chamber, many City Staff and the City Commission and visited several shops and restaurants capping the whirlwind trip with the Dunedin Highland Games! It was a memorable trip where we can officially say relationships were formed, talks of trips to and from Scotland were discussed, and our Sister City partnership grew stronger! Thanks to the many businesses, restaurants, organizations, and people that welcomed Caroline on her tour of Dunedin.
For any questions about our Sister City program and history, please contact Nicole Delfino, Assistant to the City Manager, at ndelfino@dunedinfl.net.