Sunday 22 September 2013

Scottish Artists Union AGM - Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh



I find it hard to believe that it is a year since I became a member of the Scottish Artists Union Executive Committee, and there has been a lot of activity in that past year, as reported at yesterday's AGM.


 

After a few of the formalities, Financial Report, Election of new Executive Committee and Proposed motions, SAU Secretary Chris Kelly presented the results from the 2013 Members Survey.

This major piece of research is highly useful evidence to support some of the points that the SAU are 'fighting for'. There are too many results to discuss them all here, but  will reveal some of these findings in later posts so keep checking my blog!


After a short comfort break (i.e. a chance to catch up with fellow SAU members), SAU Vice President Janie Nicoll delivered a brief presentation about her recent participation in the engage International Summer School held in Padua, Italy. The Summer School was focused on 'Leadership and Resilience in gallery education.

About engage

engage is a membership organisation representing gallery, art and education professionals in the UK and over 20 countries worldwide. engage promotes access to, enjoyment and understanding of the visual arts through gallery education. 

More  information about engage and the Summer School can be seen on the engage website:


The AGM closed with a great presentation by guest speaker Richie Cumming who discussed his work with Creative Stirling and the '14OURZERO2014' project

1NE4OURZERO2014 is the second incarnation of Creative Stirling’s Freedom Versions
 

In summer of 2012 the yard of the Old Town Jail in Stirling was transformed by a large-scale collaborative installation of visual art, musical performance and printed written word exploring the themes of freedom, independence, colonisation and alienation.

The project created a process where Scots people could reflect on the question of independence beyond polarised political debate and through the lens of Scottish culture and heritage. They wanted to create a platform to explore the role of artists and thinkers in Scotland on the question of our contemporary cultural identity.

One of the outcomes of the project was an exhibition of 40 hand screen-printed poster works consisting of the most considered, inspired and powerful statements, poetic/prosaic lines, comments and ideas concerning the landscape of a post-referendum Scotland as submitted by the public; artists, plumbers, engineers, housewives, students and people from all walks.

The installation included a working print studio run by artists and designers employing traditional print methods and the content for the exhibition grew and evolved over the six week installation as responses were gathered.

The project lives on and more information can be found on the website http://1ne4ourzero2014.tumblr.com/




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