Gray’s mobile art van heads for Orkney

Hundreds of school pupils in Orkney will have the opportunity to experience art and design thanks to a new initiative run by the art school in Aberdeen.

The team from RGU’s Gray’s School of art will travel to Orkney in a custom-built mobile art school van packed with creative tools and materials and deliver workshops to local youngsters.

The recently launched mobile art school aims to widen access to creative education and careers for young people.

It also offers training and mentoring

“We will be offering traditional skills”

opportunities for students and graduates, helping to develop the next generation of community-engaged artists and designers

Craig Barrowman, mobile art school coordinator at Gray’s, said: “We will be offering traditional skills, such as drawing and sculpture, and we will also be doing more high-tech workshops, such as sculpting in VR, where people can use virtual reality headsets and cutting edge technology to create forms of infinite scale in a virtual space.”

The mobile art school will also be at the Pier Arts Centre on Friday, when members of the public will have the chance to take part in workshops and engage with the team.

It will visit Stromness Academy, Stromness Primary, St Andrews Primary, Stenness Primary and North Walls Primary schools.

Orkney project development manager Elsa Cox said: “It offers a taste of life at Gray’s School of Art without leaving the islands.”

ARothes woman is celebrating after receiving a share of a £67,000 funding pot. Debi Weir, 47, has worked tirelessly over the years to tackle poverty in Moray – an issue, she says, is often “hidden” from society.

She’s in the process of launching R-evolution Scotland, a charitable “community benefit society” offering training and development to businesses.

When launched, it will give 100% of its profits toward programmes to tackle child poverty.

It will also be offering training to manufacturing, retail and tourism sector industries to support employee development.

R-evolution Scotland comes off the back of Mrs Weir’s work with the Moray School Bank, which was formed to gather clothing to keep pupils warm during winter.

Support is offered to families who are referred to the charity by professional organisations – including the council, the NHS and charities. Now Mrs Weir has received £5,000 from social enterprise start-up agency Firstport to help her with her venture.

She said: “R-evolution Scotland was born from the Moray School Club when we were thinking about sustainability.

“It’s a community benefit society and 100% of profits will go toward ending child poverty which is a growing issue in Moray.

“Since 2017, we’ve dealt with 900 referrals. Lots of the Moray economy is based on manufacturing, retail and tourism sectors where people often work part time or get paid minimum wage.

“There’s hidden poverty that more needs to be done to address.

“It’s really exciting to receive this money from Firstport and get the ball rolling.”

The funding goes toward various legal fees in setting up R-evolution Scotland, advertising and marketing costs to help make it a reality. Mrs Weir was one of 14 social entrepreneurs to have secured a share of £67,000 from Firstport, and the only recipient in the north-east and Highlands.

Established in 2007, Firstport is Scotland’s development agency for start-up social enterprise.

Last night Josiah Lockhart, chief executive of the agency, said: “It’s great to see such a large number of social entrepreneurs being awarded our Start It funding.

“This round shows how the social enterprise model continues to grow in popularity across the country, and how social and environmental missions are at the core of start-ups in Scotland.”