Andy Scott’s Kelpies will stand guard in Bryant Park through April 23 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Bryant Park, Fountain Terrace
Sixth Ave. at 41st St.
Sculptures on view through April 23
Festival runs through April 27 at multiple locations
www.thekelpies.co.uk
the kelpies slideshow
A pair of “proud equine guardians” have been posted at the Sixth Ave. and Forty-First St. entrance to Bryant Park, one at rest, head bowed, the other rearing up, neighing toward the sky. The fifteen-foot-high models, constructed of laser-cut steel plates, are the work of Scottish sculptor Andy Scott, smaller versions of the one-hundred-feet-high Kelpies — mythological waterborne equine creatures — he created for the Helix Parkland on the Forth & Clyde Canal near Falkirk, the artist’s father’s hometown, in central Scotland. The Kelpies, which will remain on view in Bryant Park through April 23, are part of the annual Scotland Week (Tartan Week) festivities, a celebration of Scottish culture taking place all over the city. On April 6, there will be a special Tartan Day Observance in Bryant Park at 12:30 with the New York Metro Pipe Band, the Highland Divas, and others, followed by a talk with Scott about the Kelpies at 3:00. That night, the Caledonian Collective will be hosting a concert at Webster Hall with the LaFontaines, Nina Nesbitt, Lau, and Hector Bizerk. Iona in Brooklyn will be presenting a Scottish fiddle workshop on April 7 with Katie McNally, followed by a Live Trad Session with McNally and Neil Pearlman; on April 8, Scottish Octopus with piper Andrew Forbes will be there, and on April 9 Troy MacGillivray will lead a Cape Breton fiddle workshop and a live session with Scottish Octopus. Also on April 9, Whisky Live takes place at Pier Sixty in Chelsea, with tastings, exhibitors, master classes, live music, and more. On April 10, Celtica will play Drom, while the Cape Breton Scots at Jalopy is highlighted by the work of musician and photographer Matt Diaz. Pop International Galleries is showing “As Others See Us” through April 10, and the 92nd St. Y is presenting “Scots Jews: Identity, Belonging, and the Future” through April 27, consisting of photos taken by Judah Passow. And you can see the double bill of Douglas Maxwell’s A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity and Sabrina Mahfouz’s Clean performed by Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre Company through April 27 at 59E59.