New art project planned in memory of Stuart Henderson

Two years after a road accident claimed the lives of Stuart Henderson and Marcus MacPherson, a major new arts project is being developed in memory of Mr Henderson.

The project has been launched by “Slow for Stuart”, a campaign organised by his family, along with Shetland Arts.

Initial proposals were agreed to develop a large-scale public performance to act as a celebration of the life and creativity of Stuart and address themes relevant to the Slow for Stuart campaign.

Although the ideas are still at the conceptual stage, the proposal is to create a performance that takes the idea of promenade theatre to the extreme and transports the audience to various locations and scenes, culminating in a large scale theatrical event.

Shetland Arts drama development officer John Haswell said: “The project ideas are still in their infancy but both Stuart’s family and Shetland Arts wanted to launch the idea to coincide with the second anniversary of Stuart’s death.

“We intend that the final project will feature themes that resonate with the aims of the Slow for Stuart campaign but will be a dynamic artistic event in its own right. The first stage will be to create a small group of people to take the project forward.”

This group will feature those who can make an artistic contribution as well as those with a personal and social agenda, with the hope that many of the people who worked with Stuart will contribute to the final performance.

On behalf of the family Liz Henderson said: “We, Stuart’s family and his fiancée Crystal, are delighted that Shetland Arts is planning to stage this play. This will further the aims of the Slow for Stuart campaign.

“Last year we held a balloon launch on the first anniversary of Stuart’s death to highlight aware­ness of road safety. On this, the second anniver­sary, and with road accidents constantly in the news, we felt it was a good time for Shetland Arts to announce this project. Stuart was passionate about Shetland Youth Theatre and we are sure he would be happy that his friends and colleagues want to remember him in this way.”