Parliament Launches Official Tartan Competition

PARLIAMENT LAUNCHES OFFICIAL TARTAN COMPETITION

A tartan competition has been announced at Holyrood by Presiding
Officer Alex Fergusson MSP. Joined by two fashion textile students, Jill
Kirkham and Kirsty Robertson from Cardonald College, the Presiding Officer has
launched a competition to design an official Scottish Parliament tartan as part
of the events marking 2009 as the 10th anniversary of devolution.

Announcing
the launch of the competition, Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson MSP, said:

"As part
of our activities to mark a decade of devolution we are launching a competition
to design an official Scottish Parliament tartan. Tartan is not only an
internationally recognised symbol of our country, but the tartan industry also makes a significant contribution
to Scotland's economy. The competition will use the talent of Scotland's design students to generate
a unique tartan which I hope both MSPs and members of the public will enjoy
wearing in the years to come."

The competition is open to all current
textile and design students studying at thirteen Further and Higher Education
establishments across Scotland. Students are invited to enter their
tartan design by the closing date of January 30th. Judging will be
carried out in March, and the production of the cloth will be completed in time
for the
Presiding Officer to wear at the 10th anniversary event on 1st July 2009.

The winning design will be exclusively
used by the Scottish Parliament for items sold in the Parliament shop and for
marketing and publicity. The new tartan
will be registered with the new Scottish Tartans Register as "the official
Scottish Parliament tartan".

The
winning entrant will receive a length of the finished tartan and an invitation
to the 1st July event.  Both
winning entrant and two runners up will be offered paid industry work placement
opportunities.

Background

The competition is organised in conjunction with the following:

• Scottish
  Textile Academic Group (STAG) which represents 13 colleges and universities
  across Scotland offering textile and related
  courses.
• Skillfast
  - UK
• The
  Scottish Tartans' Authority

For
public information enquiries, contact:

Telephone: 0131
348 5000 / 0800 092 7500 (Public Enquiries) / 0131 348 5395 (Gàidhlig)

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