Designs on their wall

IT MAY NOT BE EDINBURGH, but an internationally significant arts gathering opens on Tuesday in Prestonpans, just along the coast, when mural painters from Tasmania, British Columbia and Seattle gather to discuss their art and its rejuvenating effect on local economies.

Among those attending the four-day biennial conference of the Global Association of Arts and Tourism will be Art Mortimer, a pioneer of the mural movement in Los Angeles, the Californian trompe l'oeil specialist John Pugh, Britain's Ken White, creator of the Virgin Atlantic logo, and the American-based Chinese artist Wei Luan. Also attending will be the Scottish artist and former head of painting at Glasgow School of Art, Sandy Moffat.

If Prestonpans - famous for Bonnie Prince Charlie's five-minute victory over Johnnie Cope's Hanoverian forces in 1745, but for not much else - seems an unlikely venue for such a gathering, two dozen eye-catching murals painted in recent years on its walls, gable ends and along its foreshore indicate otherwise. The key to much of this sudden artistic efflorescence lies in a substantial pub on the High Street, the Prestoungrange Gothenburg.

"Who would have thought that people in America and Canada and Mexico would be talking about Prestonpans, but that's what's happening," muses mural-painter Andrew Crummy. He and fellow-muralist Adele Conn are sitting under the pub's vivid reproduction 16th-century ceiling, which Crummy painted. Two years ago, the distinctive arts and crafts building, built in 1908 as part of the Gothenburg system of "reformed public houses" in Scottish mining communities, was lovingly restored and has since become a catalyst for artistic activity in "the Pans", as well as now being the town's second largest employer.

Under the patronage of local landowner, Dr Gordon Prestoungrange, "the Goth" was restored both structurally and back to its Gothenburg principles, which involved ploughing profits back into the community. From the start, it has encouraged local artistic activity, but it was when Baron Prestoungrange and his wife made a revelatory visit to the Canadian town of Chemainus that the mural idea was born. Twenty years ago, Chemainus faced economic implosion following the closure of the sawmill, its main source of employment. A local man, Karl Schutz, had visited Romania and noted how nuns raised funds by showing visitors the old murals in their convents. In the face of much scepticism, he suggested Chemainus do the same. Today the town attracts 400,000 visitors a year, thanks to its murals depicting local history.

If it worked for Chemainus, why not for Prestonpans, whose economy has stagnated since its once-flourishing industries of coal-mining, salt-panning, pottery, brewing and soap-making vanished? The first mural was commissioned from artist Kate Hunter, who evoked the once-busy local harbour, Morrison's Haven.

Today the town boasts 23 murals, with more planned. Long-gone, bunneted worthies glare intimidatingly from shore walls; John Muir, the pioneer conservationist from Dunbar, contemplates his beloved redwoods on a gable end; the insidious witch persecution of four centuries ago is commemorated on walls behind the Goth; elsewhere salt-panners toil and Tam O'Shanter rides again.

It may be early days to start comparing Prestonpans with Chemainus, but the Goth and its associated activities have certainly had an impact. Visitor numbers are increasing, says Pat O'Brien, provost of East Lothian Council, who is currently involved in a campaign to establish a £5 million visitor centre at the neglected site of the Battle of Prestonpans. "These aren't just tourism initiatives, but a means of enhancing the economic and cultural diversity of the area."

A new sense of community, says Adele Conn, means that graffiti is kept to a minimum. "We've found that if you give kids 'ownership' of a mural - even if you just let them paint a line on it, they feel involved."

At the nearby Prestongrange Mining Museum, recounts Crummy, the murals have moved at least one anonymous local to lay a wreath under them, presumably in remembrance of a depicted forebear. A study carried out by the University of Gloucester found that 80 per cent of locals were positive about the murals, most of them "very positive", according to Crummy who, at 46, can boast an impeccable community arts pedigree, being the son of Helen Crummy MBE, doughty figurehead of the Craigmillar Arts Festival in Edinburgh.

But it's not just locals who are interested. The recent week-long Three Harbours Festival, based around the murals and featuring exhibitions by local artists, professional and amateur, attracted in the region of 6,000 visitors.

Prestonpans was the first European town to join the Global Association of Arts and Tourism (Invergordon is also now a member). The association's four-day gathering, much of it centred on the Goth, will involve seminars, demonstrations and master classes. There will be the ceremonial raising of a totem pole made by Canadian First Nation carvers, as well as the creation of a "mural in a day" at the local school, depicting Sir John Cope's ignominious defeat at Prestonpans, back in 1745.

For Crummy, however, this artistic flowering is essentially about looking to the future: "At the end of the day, this is not about art for art's sake, but about trying to regenerate an area and attracting tourists. In that sense, the murals become part of a much bigger picture."

For further details, tel: [phone] or visit www.prestoungrange.org