Out of the Blue on Cow Parade Across Edinburgh

Out of the Blue Farms Out Eight 'Cow-munity Cows' in World's Biggest Touring Public Art Exhibition

Out of the Blue (OOTB) is bringing a taste of the international arts world to eight groups of young people from around Edinburgh as part of the world's largest touring public art event CowParade. The arts organisation, supported by arts and inclusion advocates Capital City Partnership (CCP), is coordinating groups from Leith, Craigmillar, Wester Hailes, North and South Edinburgh to decorate five life size fibreglass cows donated by The Edinburgh Evening News, Radio Forth and The City of Edinburgh Council through charity One City Trust. The cows will be on display from May 15 to July 23 alongside up to 180 artist-designed cows situated around the city. The high profile event has already proved a big success at a string of major cities around the world.

Dream team: Out of the Blue teams up with Leith youth group to dream up Park Life-themed cow
OOTB is staging a series of workshops with a group of young people from the Pilmeny Youth Group in Leith and community artist Zoe Dudziak to design a cow. The group plan to work with spray paint and stencils to decorate the cow themed around the local Dalmeny Street Park. The Leith cow is the latest phase of wider OOTB community arts project Park Life aimed at regenerating the park. OOTB is working in partnership with the Education Department, National Galleries Scotland, CCP, local people and artists to plan improvements to the park.

OOTB has also hooked up with city business big hitters Ocean Terminal and property developers Whiteburn and Mountgrange to create three other 'cow-munity cows'. The businesses are sponsoring artists to work with groups of young shoppers, homeless people from The Cowgate Centre and pupils from The Royal Mile Primary School respectively to design the cows.

Community artist Zoe Dudziak comments, "I am delighted to have the opportunity to give some young people from Leith their first experience of working on a major art project. Cow Parade is a fantastic idea that I hope will capture their imagination and encourage them to participate in art on a regular basis."