Published: 10 Oct 2019
Eight creative practitioners from across Scotland have been selected to participate in the Go See Share Creative Industries initiative, supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.
The programme will enable recipients to explore and share new ways of working, identify export opportunities, forge international connections and profile Scotland’s successes in the global marketplace.
Shetland-based Gaada Projects; Creative Stirling; production company High Tide Ltd; Art in Healthcare; national maker-led membership body Applied Arts Scotland; programmer and event producer Helen Voce; community-led arts charity and social enterprise WHALE Arts Agency; and the Rumpus Room, a Govanhill-based artist led initiative, will all explore the businesses models and working practices of leading companies and organisations across the UK and internationally.
Creative Scotland’s Jessica Bonehill said: “The Go See Share Creative Industries Fund is one of a number of measures being undertaken to create a stronger and more sustainable creative industries sector in Scotland.
“It provides vital support to individuals and companies to take advantage of exceptional opportunities, learning from others how to build their businesses, professional networks and develop their body of knowledge”.
Two artists from Gaada, a Shetland-based community interest company which runs artist-led workshops, will visit Project Ability, a Glasgow-based visual arts organisation which creates opportunities for people with disabilities and lived experience of mental ill-health.
Commenting, Daniel Clark, Gaada’s co-director said: “This is a really valuable opportunity to gain greater understanding of best practice from fantastic peer organisations located in mainland Scotland”. In particular, the visit will allow the artists to learn about the project’s approach to fundraising and the management of their studios.
Members of staff and community groups at WHALE Arts Agency, a community-led arts charity and social enterprise which aims to connect the Wester Hailes community with cultural partners, will visit Granby Ceramics Workshop, in Liverpool. The Workshop is part of the Turner Prize winning Granby Four Streets Project, established by Assemble. There, members of the WHALE team will explore how a place-based organisation sustains a creative community workshop and remains economically sustainable whilst remaining led by their local community.
Art in Healthcare will attend the second International Arts in Healthcare event, Arts, Creativity and the Global Crisis: Reimagining Identity, Otherness and the Possible in New York. Art in Healthcare’s Louise Donoghue explained: “This trip comes at a crucial point in the development of our arts and social prescribing project. To have the opportunity to gain knowledge of how successful international creative models engage with vulnerable groups will be invaluable”.
Rumpus Room, an artist-led initiative with an Open Studio in Govanhill, will embark on a research trip to four other creative community projects: the South London Gallery – Art Block; Interchange – Create London; London’s Leap then Look project and Room 13 Hareclive in Bristol. Visiting these projects will enable the Rumpus Room team to explore new ways of collaborative working, with a focus on engaging children and young people in the process, and to learn about how these projects can be financially sustainable in the long term.
The Go See Share Creative Industries Fund was established in 2018 responding to Creative Scotland’s wider Creative Industries Strategy. The Strategy takes a developmental approach towards growing sustainable creative businesses, with a particular focus on business model development and income generation, through time-limited interventions.
Media contact
Claire Thomson, Media Relations & PR Coordinator, Creative Scotland
E: claire.thomson@creativescotland.com | T: 0141 302 1708
M: 07747 606 146
Photo: Ollie Benton
