Scottish 2019
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projects to connect contemporary artists and local folk together.’
SSW’s current projects range from ‘Into The Mountain’ by artist Simone Kenyon, which connects women who walk in the Cairngorm Mountains, to share and collect under- represented narratives, to joining community protests against Aberdeenshire Council’s cuts to the local bus service, which connects the area to nearby towns. Trotman describes ‘ m u t u a l survival’. it as
SSW Lumsden Weekender Even in the remotest areas of Scotland, artists and makers can access top-class facilities to produce their work. Rachael Cloughton talks to the people behind these centres about the role they play, not just for artists, but for their communities as a whole
120 THE LIST 1 Apr–31 May 2019
A cross Scotland, there are currently eleven regularly funded public- production access facilities, the use of state-of- offering the-art printmaking, sculpture, photography and glass-making facilities for low cost, often subsidised rates. Most are located in the central belt, in some of Scotland’s biggest cities, but three – Highland Print Studio, Scottish Sculpture Workshop (SSW) and North Lands Creative (NLC) – diverge from this path, serving some of Scotland’s most remote rural communities. This changes and informs their work; these public- access facilities are not simply supporting the making of art, but the making of communities.
‘Something that feels so exciting in Scotland is the artist-led approach to its cultural ecology,’ explains Sam Trotman, director of SSW, an impressive sculpture centre in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, complete with a foundry, metal and wood workshops, and ceramics studios, located in the village’s former bakery. ‘Our main focus is on supporting artists and makers through our residencies, projects and open-access facilities. [But] as one of the only civic spaces in the village, we are always finding ways of connecting our programme to others interested in starting, sharing or enhancing their skills and passions. We are particularly interested in the unique skills and resilience of rural communities and as such utilise our