Woman who put art at town’s heart

WHEN Claudia Zeiske arrived with her young family in the market town of Huntly almost 30 years ago, missing the cultural hustle and bustle of London life, she looked around for a local arts centre and realised there was none.

Zeiske had studied social anthropology in Berlin and London before setting out in a career in human rights with the likes of the British Refugee Council in London. As she puts it, working in human rights wasn’t an option while based in the north east of Scotland at that time.

She took a job as development manager at the National Galleries of Scotland’s Duff House in nearby Banff, but still hankered after the cultural buzz of art on her doorstep.

After having various conversations over food and wine with likeminded friends, she decided to look into creating an arts centre herself. “At first my ideas were quite traditional,” she recalls. “It was a case of bringing art created and shown in a city to a smaller version in the country.”

Zeiske was informed by the funding powers that be that she should carry out a feasibility study to see if the town could sustain an arts centre. “They said my feasibility study wasn’t feasible,” she laughs over a Zoom conversation last week. “That is how what is now known as ‘the town is the venue’ emerged.”

With no money in its first year (1995) and a £700 grant from the old Scottish Arts Council in the second year, Deveron Arts – named after one of the rivers which passes through the town – steadily grew. Today, Deveron Projects, driven by Zeiske, is a model for socially engaged arts organisations the world over.

And tomorrow, after 25 years of engaging with more than 100 artists, bringing 120 projects to fruition, interacting with the 4,400 residents of Huntly and walking 40,000 miles, Zeiske is set to hand over the baton to a new director.

This changing of the guard will take place during an online lunch for 150 people hosted by Zeiske and compered by long-term friend and collaborator with Deveron Projects, Anthony Schrag. The announcement of the new director will be heralded by musician John Kenny playing an ancient wind instrument called a carnyx. Entertainment will also be provided by the likes of long-term Deveron Projects artist, David Sherry, as participants feast on banquet, with a box of spices and menu instructions sent in advance from a Huntly-based “food-fusion” partnership, Neep & Okra Kitchen.

Schrag, who has worked on several projects with Deveron in the last 11 years, including Lure of the Lost, an “art pilgrimage”, which saw him walk from Huntly to the Venice Biennale in 2015, describes Huntly as his second home.

“I have become part of the family – they can’t get rid of me,” jokes the Edinburgh-based artist, who is a Senior Lecturer of Arts Management and Cultural Policy with Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.

“The beauty of Deveron Projects is that no one person has full control, be that the community or the artist. Claudia has created a place in which people believe that culture in all its forms; joyous, silly, wonderful, can change things.”

Over the last 25 years Deveron Projects has brought hundreds of artists from the UK, Europe and beyond to live and work in the town exploring issues of both local and international significance. A cross between a cultural melting pot and a social enterprise, art may be the driver but food, the environment and walking is the glue which brings it all together.

Each artist has also left a piece of work which over the years has built up into a major collection. The Town Collection is not in a museum or gallery, but in keeping with Deveron Projects’ community focus, located in places where they can be seen and