David Mach's man-size coat hanger crucifixion sculpture swung from the articulated lorry and hung in front of St Giles Cathedral yesterday morning while Barcroft media took photographs. The snap-happy tourists soon joined in as did photographers distracted from their job of covering a big case at the High Court across the road. Then the crucifixion was attached to scaffolding and remained centre stage in Parliament Sq for five hours set against a threateningly grey Edinburgh sky.

David Mach with Coat Hanger Crucifixion (c) Alan Wylie

Everyone's response was different. Some amazed at the use of coathangers; one fixated by the shiny bolts in the feet and before it was taken down we had a call from the registry office complaining that the sculpture might put off those getting married!

After the huge success of David's coat hanger gorilla in the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, this was the first opportunity to see work from his next project which is inspired by and will mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. The year-long project will culminate in this crucifixion sculpture and The Tower of Babel collage, currently on show in the Summer Exhibition, returning to Edinburgh in a large exhibition of David's work at the City Arts Centre in July 2011.

www.davidmach.com/works/kingjames.asp

Blogger: Kate Wright-Morris

The UK's biggest gardening show was back in full bloom this summer.

Organised by the Royal Horticultural Society, Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (6-11 July) has become a much-loved British institution, having gained a reputation for providing some of the world's best conceptual gardens and a feast of grow your own attractions.

We've been working with the fabulous PR and Shows' teams from the RHS since March and were so excited to finally be on-site for its build up and launch.

Donning our high-vis vests and (very) sensible shoes, Hannah and I started work at the Show first thing on Saturday morning.  Getting to know the site took a little bit of time: the show covered a mighty 34 acres and featured 16 Show Gardens, 13 Small Gardens, six Conceptual Gardens, five Sustainable Gardens, six Shakespeare's Comedies Gardens, a massive 2000m² floral marquee, Home Grown exhibit (fields of golden crops, chickens, bee hives and vegetables by the truckload), a cookery theatre, and a rose festival.  The comfy shoes really came in handy.

The whole team was on site for Press Day on Monday the 5^th of July, when we welcomed over 600 journalists and photographers down to take note of everything from Judi Dench receiving a rose to a nine-strong vegetable orchestra in the Tyrrells Harvest Celebration garden.

The show was a great success (complete with lots of hot sunny weather).  Once we made it back to the office, after very reluctantly handing in our walkie-talkies, we have all resolved to grow something (or at the very least, play a carrot flute).

Blogger: Kirsten Dennis

Since issuing news of Charles Saatchi's gift of the Saatchi Gallery to the nation, Colman Getty has been handling enquiries from newsdesks and art correspondents around the world.

On Friday 2 July every national broadsheet newspaper featured the news with a double page spread in the in The Independent and a full page 3 in The Times whose art critic, Richard Cork said:

"We can all take cheer from Saatchi's astonishing gift". He added: "Mr Saatchi's willingness to take risks and support the work of the young untried artists is especially valuable today when economic hardship hits anyone struggling to emerge and survive. His vision is exciting, much needed and capable of transforming all our ideas about what modern art might become".

Many of the newspapers carried pictures of some of the art that makes up the gift of 200 works that Saatchi has given including Tracey Emin, My Bed, 1998 and Jake and Dinos Chapman, Tragic Anatomies, 1996.

But it was the broadcasters that got the early scoops on Thursday 1 July and Will Gompertz covered the story for a number of BBC TV and radio outlets. He was keen to interview Grayson Perry for the Ten o'clock News and in a classic demonstration of CG's close association with the culture scene across the board, a team member piped up that it was her event, The Samuel Johnson Book Prize, that Grayson Perry was attending that night.

So the Ten o'clock News crew caught up with Grayson Perry and Saatchi's story was the lead arts feature. Huw Edwards introduced it by quoting Jeremy Hunt, culture secretary who said of Saatchi: "His decision to gift these works to the nation is an act of incredible generosity".

Watch this space for news of how the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other international titles carry the story....

Blogger: Rachel Duffield

The London Literature Festival got off to a splendid summer of soccer start last night, with a match in front of the London Eye of scientists versus writers. Celebrating the fact that the Royal Society's See Further Festival and the London Literature Festival are making their presence felt all over the Southbank Centre site, we decided to put the relative football skills of writers and scientists to the test.

Refereed by Alexei Sayle, who chose to ride his bike around rather than having to get himself overtired in advance of his London Literature Festival/Udderbelly gig, the match started off as a friendly but got more serious. London's literati, including Bill Samuel of Foyles and CG's own Kate Wright-Morris, kept spirits up with vuvuzelas, imported by the Southbank Centre's Rachel Holmes from South Africa.

The writers won hands down - 4-2 - with a hat trick scored by poet, novelist and short story writer Joe Dunthorne.

Blogger: Truda Spruyt

Thursday 24 June saw Newport Girls' School from Shropshire become The Times Spelling Bee Champions 2010!

Heats began across the country in March, with over 1000 schools registering, and 100 Semi Finals whittled it down to 10 for the final spell-off at the Institute of Education in London.

Teams travelled from across the country to walk up the yellow and black carpet and down into the Spelling Bee lair where they had the opportunity to practise one last time before entering into the Logan Hall; dimmed lights and atmospheric music aplenty!

Dick & Dom were there to warm up the crowd (as if they weren't excited enough already...) and banners flew throughout the hall for the Queen Bees, The Incredibles, The Bees Knees.....you name it.

After an introduction from James Harding and messages of good luck from Jon Snow, the GMTV presenters and others, it was time for the serious stuff to begin...

And off they went.

Say it, spell it, say it....

Eczema, pneumatic, secateurs, dilettante, incandescent...The level of spelling was extraordinary but after the first round there was only one man (girl) standing and the points were totted up for the teams so that they knew how to approach the quick fire round...

Teams could choose from easy, medium and difficult words, 1 point for easy, 2 for medium, 3 for difficult.  Needless to say difficult was the word group of choice and the first team took to the podium.

After an incredibly nerve-racking and tense 20 minutes (each team had 2 minutes to spell as many words correctly as they could) it was time to announce the results, and as the final two teams stood trembling on stage awaiting their fate, it was Newport Girls' School who heard those magical words, 'And in second place is Culcheth High School'.  They'd done it.

There were tears of joy, pictures with Dick &Dom, the presentation of laptops, trophies, dictionaries - the cheers were deafening!

Once the winning team had been interviewed and photographed to within an inch of their lives they were whisked off to a nearby boutique hotel where they had a little time for it all to sink in before once again being taxied off to the Rainforest Café where we are assured much fun was had with a special announcement being made and more cheers all round.

It didn't end there and the following morning saw the team on the BBC Breakfast sofa with Susannah and Charlie and their faces on the front page of The Times.

At lunchtime they were free to head back to Shropshire - I almost left my phone with them as they'd taken it off me to play the Spelling Bee app.  Something tells me there might be some training involved for 2011.....

Blogger: Kiri Gillespie