Scotland’s artists are waiting to welcome you back
Tweek, across the country, doors are opening. From Cample Line, a gem of a gallery in an old mill in the heart of the Dumfriesshire countryside, to Dovecot, the former public baths in Edinburgh that is now a world-renowned tapestry studio, art is unlocking.
In the flagship space of Dundee Contemporary Arts, printmakers are coming back to work in the studio. The venue is ready to welcome local families who like their learning hands on. In the spacious, pristine galleries, a beautiful painting show by Emma Talbot has lain like a modern Sleeping Beauty, installed and waiting since last autumn – it is about to be discovered.
At heart art is simple. At the absolute lowest of my own winter lockdown, it was the new set of drawing pens and gloriously empty sketchbook that gave me cheer. Throughout lockdown people have rediscovered the power of making in their own lives. It’s the power to make your own world. Or, sometimes, to escape your own world.
At its professional best, visual art is like an orchestra in full flow – that carefree note you might observe is a lifetime of experience, of specialist education, of different skills and knowledge, of play and hard graft. And it results in something that can take audiences beyond ourselves. New ideas, new horizons, space to think.
Scotland is known for its visual artists, its contemporary culture. I’ve travelled from Beijing to Northern Mexico to find people who know of Scotland’s contemporary artists first-hand. More than half of tourists travel, not for hills or golf courses, but for culture and history. But this is not
Our creative industries employ more people than the energy sector
just the familiar tale of Turner Prize-winners – it’s the story of the galleries that inspired them and the web of workshops, studios and production facilities where artists work. They help retain our graduates and draw cultural workers from across the world.
Art is the space, art opens conversations. With the
Climavore project in Skye, for example, art is unlocking approaches on how to live and farm more sustainably. In Glasgow’s Bridgeton, Glasgow Women’s Library is a place where art and books meet, where artists explore neglected histories, and share knowledge with women in local communities. In places like Platform in urban Easterhouse or Timespan in Helmsdale, Sutherland, locals have spaces and places where soon they might meet and make and learn together.
What’s good for us is also good for business – the arts are the experimental, inspirational spring that feeds the well from which our wider creative industries gain sustenance. That creative industries sector employs more people than the energy sector.
Covid has hit hard. This is just the beginning of a long recovery across the cultural sector, where business models have been decimated, and freelance artists and creative workers have experienced devastating loss of income. As we begin the process of unlocking our doors this week, it’s time to celebrate the knowledge that art unlocks pleasure and potential. Scotland’s art is waiting to welcome you.
Moira Jeffrey is the director of Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN). For more information about what’s happening in your neighbourhood check out www.sca-net.org/ artunlocks and follow #Artunlocks on social media