2 0 M A R C H - 2 0 A U G U S T , 2 0 2 1 T H E S C O T T I S H F I S H E R I E S M U S E U M BY THE SEASIDE: H E R I T A G E , H E A L I N G , A N D N E W H O R I Z O N S

BLUE SPACE & OCEAN SEA CARE & BLUE HEALTH AS MUSE SELF CARE

© Henderson ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This exhibition has been created by students from the 2020-2021 Museum and Gallery Studies MLitt programme at the University of St Andrews. MARKETING & FUNDRAISING TEAM Helen Sturm LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT TEAM Rebecca Scholtens and Maddi Kuras DESIGN TEAM

Isobel Westbury INTERPRETATION TEAM Mattea Gernentz and Kathryn McLaren COLLECTIONS TEAM Dara McElligott and Carl Harrington SUPERVISORS & MENTORS

Dr. Agnès Bos (University of St Andrews), Dr. Karen Brown (University of St Andrews), Linda Fitzpatrick (Scottish Fisheries Museum), and Kate Wilcox (University of St Andrews)

We are grateful to Matthew Jarron from the University of Dundee Museum Services for granting us permission to borrow several objects for the exhibition as well as utilize images from the collection. Similarly, we are also indebted to Samantha Walker of the St Andrews Preservation Trust and Margaret Cruickshank, our partner at the Fife Folk Museum, for the loan of their authentic Victorian swimwear and beach accessories.

We would also like to give a special thank you to all of the staff members at the Scottish Fisheries Museum who have aided in facilitating our exhibition and all of the participants who graciously agreed to be featured in our accompanying podcast series. In addition, we could not have organized our events without Transition St Andrews, St Andrews Yoga Society, St Andrews Can Do Initiative, and STAR Radio. We are appreciative of the services of Owen Keefer as well, who was consulted during the production of our exhibition logo.

Finally, we extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has donated funds to our exhibition, enabling it to be the best it can be.

All images are taken from the public domain, licensed under Creative Commons, or used with permission from the owner(s). A list of full attributions may be found at the end of the brochure. OVERVIEW OF EVENTS

SCAVENGER HUNT — ONGOING UNTIL END OF EXHIBITION

Hunt for clues along the seaside and post them with the hashtag #bytheseaside to complete this scavenger hunt! Winning groups will receive prizes!

BEACH CLEAN-UP — MARCH 2021 & SUMMER 2021

Working in partnership with Plastic Free Anstruther and Transition St Andrews, help us beautify our landscapes and improve the quality of Fife’s gorgeous beaches.

AT HOME ID — MARCH-MAY 2021

What’s that critter? Send us photos of your seaside finds to have them identified! Let's all celebrate the beauty and diversity of the sea’s creatures.

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST — APRIL 2021

Is the ocean your muse? Show us! We are accepting ocean-related photos, paintings, and more from the Fife community to be judged by a panel of experts. Finalists will be displayed on our webpage, and winners will be given fabulous prizes! OVERVIEW OF EVENTS

ART CLASSES - APRIL 2021

Facilitated by members of our team and open to both youth and adult participants! Join us online for sea-inspired art classes and discover a new talent. Let the ocean move you.

WRITING CONTEST — MAY 2021

Is the ocean your muse? Show us! We are accepting poetry and prose dedicated to the sea by all members of the Fife community. Submissions should be recent and will be judged by expert panelists. Finalists will be displayed on our webpage, and winners will receive fabulous prizes!

BY THE SEASIDE: BATTLE OF THE BANDS — MAY 2021

St Andrews’ STAR Radio presents Battle of the Bands, a showcase of student bands featuring original songs inspired by the sea!

CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERT — MAY 2021

Let yourself be serenaded by the sweet sound of classical music in an unforgettable evening of song.

YOGA ON THE BEACH — JUNE 2021

Breathe with the push and pull of the waves! Open to all ages and experiences, participants will bring their own mats and meet for a socially-distanced yoga class on the beach.

Please refer to https://bytheseaside-exhibition.co.uk/ for updated event information.

INTRODUCTION

As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and its shadow pandemic of isolation and loss, nurturing our well- being holistically, caring well for both our bodies and minds, is more pertinent now than ever. There is truly no better time to synthesize lessons learned throughout history and those evident in recent years linking the sea to human flourishing. Presented as a component of Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters (2020-2021), our exhibition delves into the vital interconnectivity between humanity and the blue spaces that surround us. Through an interdisciplinary lens, we explore how this relationship manifests across history, art, psychology, and the sciences. For many of us, the sea has been a source of solace, peace, and inspiration in recent months. Even while reality as we know it has been transformed in significant ways, there is something about the sea’s ebb and flow that remains soothing in its ever-changing constancy. We invite you to come along with us to the seaside, in order to rekindle childhood nostalgia and joys while gaining a new perspective on nature, mindfulness, leisure, and the spirit of place. BLUE SPACE & BLUE HEALTH Improved health has long been associated with being in, on, or near the water. Even in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the benefits of life by the seaside were lauded as the trend of taking beach vacations starkly rose in popularity in the late eighteenth century. However, this affinity was a significant cultural shift as previously the sea had been viewed primarily as a chaotic force and an area of potential danger (due to shipwrecks, storms, dangerous creatures, etc.). Around this time, cold bathing in sea waves was prescribed to alleviate “melancholy” and an excess of black bile. The discovery of oxygen in 1778 by Antoine Lavoisier also drew visitors to the seaside as theories began to emerge about the specific health benefits of sea air, which was thought to be more oxygenated and pure.

The colour blue itself has proven psychological connections to peace, tranquility, and creativity. Exposure to the colour blue is known to lower blood pressure and slow down one’s heart rate, relaxing the body. The sound of the sea, similarly, appears to have an incredible calming effect on listeners. A 2010 study featured in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that natural sounds and sights contribute significantly to stress recovery. “Blue space”—defined as any visible body of water—has the capacity to serve as a democratizing influence in well-being, and high levels of blue space visibility result in lower psychological distress. Interestingly, the benefits of blue space are even more pronounced than those offered by “green space”.

For hundreds of years, water has been seen as a remedy to bring about better physical and mental health, represented in history through the adoption of bathing pools, cold therapy, and practices like breathing sea air as a TB treatment and promenading by the coast. These rituals and traditions still maintain a hold today, for good reason, and many families in the United Kingdom and elsewhere still choose to go on holiday to the seaside. However, this impulse to interact with water dynamically is not limited to OCEAN storytelling or a purely intellectual or traditionally creative pursuit. Many engage AS with water in a physical way that is no less devoted, through forms of recreation such as swimming, sailing, and surfing. The Fife MUSE area itself has a rich history of such leisure activities; Anstruther, for example, was home to an open air swimming pool at the east end of Cellardyke, built in the early 1930s and used frequently for sailing model boats by The East Fife Model Sailing Club.

Regardless of the means of expression, there is a common impulse to go to the Libraries and museums are brimming water to escape, understand, or discover with artistic examples of the innate pull one’s self, relying upon water’s impressive humanity seems to universally power to prompt new thinking and spark experience: feeling drawn to and clarity. Countless artists, like the British inspired by bodies of water— landscape painter JMW Turner, have particularly the sea. Humans overall drawn upon the idea of the “sublime” as it have rich, varied connections to water, exists within Romanticism. In this line of both on an individual and shared plane. thinking, the sea acts as muse, resplendent This association is made evident in its changeability, power, and beauty— through an abundance of poetry, inspiring a unique awe in its viewers that is literature, folklore, mythology, visual part fear and part astonishment. art, music, photography, and more. Within Scottish folklore, figures such as In all of these things, water possesses the kelpies, shape-shifting spirits dwelling power to both inspire and provoke, acting in lakes, and selkies, beings who as a muse throughout generations and transform from seals into humans, across mediums. represent this long-standing fascination with the vast, almost mystical potential of water. The infamous Loch Ness “PEOPLE HAVE A DEEP EMOTIONAL monster is yet another example of CONNECTION TO THE SEA. THE OCEANS INSPIRE, THRILL, imagination running wild with the AND SOOTHE US.” capacity of the depths. -CALLUM ROBERTS “The seaside was an important part of my childhood, and, growing up in the British Isles, the sea was a part of my identity and consciousness. This makes me more aware of the impact that this ‘blue space’ has on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. During the pandemic, the sea has often been a place of retreat for me through walking on the Fife Coastal Path. It has also made me aware of the impact this blue space has on our environment, and its central importance in such issues as climate change, plastic pollution, and overfishing. We all need to protect this blue space for our own well-being, to understand our connection with the world, and for the benefit of future generations.”

- Carl Harrington, By the Seaside Collections Manager Just as the water protects us, we must SEA protect it. The sea, as a resource with great healing potential and a vessel of abundant life, has the capacity to benefit CARE all who encounter it. However, our oceans are also a resource under attack in & the context of our current environmental emergency. Warming ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, coral SELF bleaching, overfishing, pollution, and the extinction of species are all vital issues CARE demanding attention and action. Over 90% of the planet’s warming over the past 50 years has occurred in the ocean, and overall sea levels have risen about 200 mm since 1900. Arctic sea ice levels are now at a historic low. Over time, this warming will continue to have greater and greater impacts on our shorelines, resulting in coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, and habitat destruction, displacing many coastal inhabitants. These stark changes could rob future generations of fond experiences with the sea.

How has the sea been a part of your life? How can we protect it for future generations?

. HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?

Sea Care: Conserve water Reduce waste and recycle whenever possible Make sustainable seafood choices when dining out Participate in a local beach clean-up Donate to an environmental charity

Self Care: Go on a walk by “blue spaces” near you Try a new water-based leisure activity (e.g. wild swimming) Create a poem, song, or collage about the sea Think about memories you have related to an ocean, lake, river, etc. (Are they special? What makes them so?) Try listening to a recording of waves breaking as background noise when stressed

. KIDS CORNER

Can you spot the shells? Follow the trail around the exhibition to go on a seaside adventure with Calum, Eilidh, Hamish, and Mairi!

Fun Fact #1: The UK has the largest wave, tidal, and offshore wind resources in Europe. These energy sources could potentially provide for 15-20% of the UK’s electricity needs!

Fun Fact #2: Scotland’s coastline makes up 10% of Europe’s total, and over a quarter of the world’s whale and dolphin species can be spotted in Scotland’s waters.

Seaside Word Scramble: glwielnbe lwdi msnwmgii mbuelsi apostdrc IF YOU HAVE ENJOYED THIS EXHIBITION, WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING RESOURCES:

By the Sea: The Therapeutic Benefits of Being in, on and by the Water (2019) by Dr. Deborah Cracknell

"Seeking everyday wellbeing: The coast as a FURTHER therapeutic landscape" (2015) by Sarah Bell "Residential exposure to visible blue space (but not green space) associated with lower READING psychological distress in a capital city" (2016) by Daniel Nutsford et al.

Modernism on Sea: Art and Culture at the British Seaside (2009), edited by Lara Feigel and Alexandra Harris

“‘I Need the Sea and the Sea Needs Me’: Symbiotic coastal policy narratives for human wellbeing and sustainability in the UK” (2018) by Catherine Kelly

Swimming Pool, William D. Henderson, page 1, University of Dundee Museum Services archived photographs, pages 5-6, Scottish IMAGE Fisheries Museum Rhine Maiden Lamenting, Arthur Rackham, page 7, University of Dundee Museum CREDITS Services Great British Beach Clean 2016, page 9, Resource Magazine Exhibition Logo, page 13, Isobel Westbury and Helen Sturm

Kids Corner Word Scramble Answers: a) well-being, b) wild swimming, c ) sublime, d) postcard g, and lin N a e e w H

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