News

Funding boost for Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

Leith-based contemporary visual arts facility Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) has been awarded a major boost towards the development of a purpose built facility in the recent funding round of Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Capital Awards.

Iain Munro Head of Capital at the Scottish Arts Council, said: ‘When we decided to consolidate our funding for the next three years into one funding round, we wanted to support exciting and ambitious projects that will contribute to the development of Scottish artistic and public life for many years to come.  Providing development funding for this project will now allow Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop to examine its proposals in more detail, looking at things such as business plans and sustainability as well as its architectural ambitions to develop a leading international centre for sculpture and contemporary art that will excite, inspire and transform the lives of both artists and the local communities.’

The new facility will provide up to 30 studios and 3 purpose-built workshops as well as a dedicated education area and accommodation for visiting artists. A general project space will allow for experimentation and artists’ professional development as well offering a programme of public events and exhibitions throughout the year. At present the building has 15 studios, a single workshop and one general public space and the organisation is struggling to cope with demand.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) Director, Irene Kernan said ‘This is a marvellous opportunity not only for Edinburgh but for the visual arts sector throughout Scotland. This will be the first building of its kind in the UK – a purpose-built sculpture facility supporting young and established artists which also will be open to anyone interested in learning about or making visual art. Our aim is to create a centre of excellence for sculpture and contemporary visual art which will attract artists working in Scotland and throughout the UK as well as internationally.’

ESW has been working with award-winning Edinburgh architects, Sutherland Hussey to develop the first stage of the project and will continue consulting with artists and the local community as the project develops.

All the staff and students here at Contemporary Art ETC.. are delighted by the news and we look forward to our continued collaboration with ESW.

http://www.edinburghsculpture.org/new_build.html

http://www.sutherlandhussey.co.uk/

New space for Capital City artists

Plans have been announced today to convert St Margaret’s House, a 1970’s block next to Meadowbank Stadium, into badly needed artist’s studios which are set to begin work on 06 April 2008.

“Edinburgh was the philosophical crucible of the Enlightenment and, for one, I’d like to see the return of the city’s reputation as an intellectual melting-pot in the International ideas market. With that in mind, I believe that it is important to have a large collection of creative minds working together in theone site, a creative hub. Art’s Complex is the result of a two year project to bring such a venue to the Capital and to try and
rectify the huge need for artists space.” said Derek Gray, Director of Art’s Complex.

The venture is set to re-dress a severe shortage of affordable studio space in Edinburgh, it will be able to accommodate over 200 artists as well as an 11 000 square feet gallery/exhibition space presenting innovative work from local artist as well as creatives from the arts industry in Scotland.

“The main aim with this initiative is to redress the imbalance between the large number of artists seeking affordable studio space in the city and the severe lack of appropriate space available” said Dale Gibson, Business Director of Art’s Complex.

The deal struck between Caledonian Trust and Art’s Complex aims to do just that and to reach out specifically to the surrounding local community through arts education and participatory projects and more generally to the international arts sector bringing nationally and internationally renowned artists to Edinburgh to enrich the cultural diversity of the city.

Everybody here at Contemporary Art ETC…. would like to wish Art’s Complex all the best and we look forward to working with them at some point in the future.

Ed.

http://www.artscomplex.org/

Anthony D’offay Channel 4 News Feb 27th 2008

For more on this and other Channel 4 news stories click on the link below.

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/arts_entertainment/art/the+art+of+a+good+sell+/1667547

Telford students offered 2 Year Degree at Cumbria University

Congratulations to the 8 HN students who attended interviews at Cumbria University and who were all offered direct entry to the 2nd year of the prestigeous Fine Art Degree course. All the students are delighted to be offered the opportunity to complete their degree in just 2 years on a course that is “been recognised as one of the leading courses of its kind nationally since 1997”

This is a real endorsment of both the students and the HND course offered by the Fine Art team at Telford and we are delighted that everybody’s efforts have been recognised.

ED

Happy Birthday !!!!!!!!

It’s our birthday !!!!!!

Exactly one year ago today we launched ourselves into the blogosphere.

Our intention was to provide information on the innovative Contemporary Art Practice course at Edinburgh’s Telford college. However in a short space of time we became one of, if not the most viewed contemporary art, educational blogs on the internet with over 34ooo hits to date.

Over the past year we have provided our readers with all sorts of fascinating information on contemporary art and artists in our “Fact of the Day” feature as well as links to web based resources and news and reviews of major contemporary art exhibitions and events.

In the coming year we intend to continue our ground breaking work and develop a range of new contemporary art ETC… features and resources.

Watch out for:

the contemporary art ETC… video channel, featuring student work and interviews with visiting artists

the improved contemporary art ETC… Flickr page

In the meantime let us thank all our readers and supporters who have contributed over the past year and without whom we would have perished in the depths of cyberspace.

You know who you are and we love you all.

Ed.

**If you have any comments, requests or would like to contribute to the Blog please let us know.