DON ROBERTO AND SCOTLAND
International Perspectives

11-12 May 2024
The Stirling Smith Museum & Art Gallery

Two days of talks and visits celebrating the life, travels and vision of Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham

Widely known as ‘Don Roberto’, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936) is best known as the co-founder, with Keir Hardie, of the Scottish Labour Party, forerunner of the modern Labour Party; and later as founding president of the Scottish National Party. But in a long and remarkable life he was also a prolific writer, horseman, traveller, adventurer, visionary, internationalist and humanitarian.

This two-day event brings together specialists in different aspects of his life and work to build a portrait of one of the most significant, yet overlooked, figures of late 19th and early 20th century Scottish political and cultural life; and to ask the question: what can we learn from him today about Scotland and the wider world?

Tickets from Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/don-roberto-scotland-international-perspectives-tickets-856190838847

Tickets for full weekend £33

The weekend is organised by the Cunninghame Graham Society and hosted by the Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum. It is generously supported by Foundation Scotland, the Andrew Tannahill Fund, Gartmore House and Gartmore Heritage Society.

 

PROGRAMME

Saturday –

Please note: the Sunday itinerary is optional.  Ticket-holders will need to provide their own transport to sites. Lunch at Gartmore will have a small charge and the boat to Inchmahome costs £10 in cash.

10.00           Opening address

James Robertson: Cunninghame Graham – a personal response

10.40           Respondents: the Cunninghame Graham ‘moment’

11.10           Coffee

11.30           Conor Jameson: RBCG and Hudson

Carla Sassi: RBCG and Empire

Laurence Davies: RBCG and Conrad

Moderator: Alan Riach

12.45           Lunch

14.00           Chris Dolan: RBCG and new writing

Helen Smith: RBCG and Edward Garnett

Rob Gibson: RBCG and the Highlands

Jamie Jauncey & Alan Riach: RBCG and women

Moderator: Gerry McGarvey

15.45           Tea

16.00           Concluding remarks: Jamie Jauncey

16.15           Close

 

Sunday

10.30           Arrive Gartmore

Tour of house and grounds

Robin Cunninghame Graham: family history

11.30           Lachlan Munro & Robin Cunninghame Graham: A Careless Enchantment: The Complete Scottish Sketches of R. B. Cunninghame Graham

Lachlan Munro: the new Cunninghame Graham archive at the National Library of Scotland

12.45           Lunch (by donation)

 

 

Organising Committee: Jamie Jauncey (chair), Alan Riach, Gerry McGarvey, Nicola Wilson and Heather Carroll.

Speaker Biographies_Don Roberto and Scotland