Media Release: Artists’ bursaries announced

39 awards totalling £440,000

THIRTY-nine artists have received a total of £440,000 in bursaries of £5,000, £15,000 and £30,000 to support the ongoing development of their work through Creative Scotland’s Artists’ Bursaries programme.

The purpose of the Artists’ Bursaries programme is to provide artists and creative professionals with the time and resources to research and develop their work. Open to individuals at any stage in their career, these awards are made to artists that demonstrate a high level of quality, imagination and ambition in their work.

For the January 2014 deadline, Creative Scotland received almost 400 applications to the Artists’ Bursaries programme requesting in excess of £5 million. Thirty-nine awards totalling £440,000 were made within the budget available.

Award recipients receiving £30,000 are:

• Duncan Campbell, artist, awarded £30,000 towards the research and development of an idea for a feature film and presentation of a composite production model.
• Scott Myles, artist, awarded £30,000 to enable a two-year period of focused research and development that will reinvigorate thinking, develop new opportunities and lead to the production of ambitious large-scale artworks.
• Frances Priest, artist, designer and maker, awarded £30,000 to provide a concentrated period of studio time and material resources to support the development of a significant new body of work.

Award recipients receiving £15,000 are:

• Rob Churm, artist, awarded £15,000 to develop skills in animation and film in order to open up new directions in future work.
• Ross Collins, artist and designer, awarded £15,000 to take time to re-evaluate work and to develop new directions and fresh opportunities.
• Lotte Gertz, artist, awarded £15,000, to buy the time and materials required to explore new approaches to making work.
• Nic Green, live artist and performance maker, awarded £15,000 to support the development of an ambitious new site-specific artwork examining waste and its associated systems.
• Kathryn Hinton, jeweller and silversmith, awarded £15,000 to use digital processes and new technologies to create a new body of work that investigates the use of colour and materials in contemporary design.
• Catriona Macdonald, musician, awarded £15,000 to research pre-1900 fiddle repertory from the Shetland Islands, and to use this as inspirational material for future creative collaborations, compositions, performances and publications.
• Hector MacInnes, composer and songwriter, awarded £15,000 to undertake a period of research, reflection and composition to clearly define new themes and methods to support future practice.
• Fred Morrison, musician and composer, awarded £15,000 to develop a new suite of pibrochs.
• Donald S Murray, writer, awarded £15,000, to research and write a non-fiction book about the people, past and future of the herring trade.
• Janet Paisley, writer, awarded £15,000 to buy time for a period of research and development leading to a new work of fiction, and to re-engage with the form of the novel.
• Claire Pencak, choreographer and performer, awarded £15,000 to enable a sustained period of research to create new choreographic work in response to river habitats.
• Roxane Permar – Susan Timmins, artists, awarded £15,000 to support the research and development of a new body of work addressing issues related to the Cold War that bridge both sides of the Iron Curtain, Scotland and Russia.
• Donna Rutherford, artist and writer, awarded £15,000 to allow dedicated time to develop new writing in the form of a series of short stories that will be published and/or become part of new live performance pieces and/or used for radio broadcast.
• Tommy Smith, musician, awarded £15,000 to enable the exploration of significant new directions in solo and collaborative work through reflection, research, experimentation, composition and performance.
• Laura Spring, independent designer/maker, awarded £15,000 to provide time to experiment and pursue new ideas and processes that will lead to a new body of work.
• Graeme Stephen, musician and composer, awarded £15,000 to enable an extended period of research that will culminate in the composition of a new work for guitar and the Zapp-4 Quartet.
• Hanna Tuulikki, artist and composer, awarded £15,000 to research and develop a new body of work – Mnemonic Topographies – a series of site-specific compositions made in culturally and sonically resonant places in the Scottish lowlands, highlands and islands.

Award recipients receiving £5,000 are:

• Raisah Ahmed / Iftekhar Gafar, film-makers, awarded £5,000 to develop a feature file that tells the story of three Scottish Asian women on a journey from Scotland to Pakistan by road in the present day.
• Johnny Barrington, filmmaker, awarded £5,000 to research and develop two feature film scripts set in Aberdeenshire and Isle of Lewis.
• Norman Bissell, writer, awarded £5,000 to support the development of a novel based on the last dramatic six years in the life of George Orwell in Scotland, England and France.
• Claire Cunningham, performer, awarded £5,000 to provide research time to extend skills in performance and to explore new potential collaborations.
• Lauren Gault, artist, awarded £5,000 to support a period of research and consolidation of practice that will inform future exhibitions, texts and performances.
• Kevin Hutcheson, artist, awarded £5,000 to fund a period of studio and workshop time to inform the development of new work.
• Niall Macdonald, artist, awarded £5,000, to have dedicated studio and development time to explore new approaches to making work.
• Iain Finlay Macleod, writer, awarded £5,000, to spend time with artists who approach the creation of work from different viewpoints and to see how these approaches can inform the development of new work.
• Gillebrìde MacMillan, singer, awarded £5,000 to spend time researching and learning the Gaelic songs held in the archives of Canna House, and developing ways to reintroduce these into the modern repertoire.
• Sara Maitland, writer, awarded £5,000 to explore the desert landscape and traditions of the Bible and early Christian spirituality and also to investigate the present situation of Copts, particularly the new forms of monasticism.
• Matthew Richardson, artist, awarded £5,000, to establish a deeper engagement with the processes of production and to have time in the studio to allow ideas to evolve naturally.
• Kari Robertson, artist, awarded £5,000 to undertake a reworking of the 1970 Godard film – British Sounds – to examine contemporary conditions of labour and communication.
• Jess Richards, writer, awarded £5,000 to provide focussed time to enable the research and development of a third novel that will include an ambitious invented setting and third person narration.
• Paul Rous, performer and devisor, awarded £5,000, to support a period of research, reflection and studio rehearsal informed by a growing interest in theoretical physics.
• Chrys Salt, writer, awarded £5,000 to provide focussed time to support the development of a new collection of poetry to be published in late 2014.
• Jenna Watt, live artist and theatre maker, awarded £5,000 towards a period of research and exploration for a new work of Contemporary Theatre.
• Rebecca Wilcox, artist, awarded £5,000, to develop a body of research involved with taking language and its entanglement with voice as material for new visual and audio work.
• Sarah Wright, artist, awarded £5,000 to undertake a period of research and development within the studio that will form the basis of a new body of work.
• Laura Yuile, artist, awarded £5,000 to enable a sustained period of studio-based reflection and experimentation as well as workshop based development of technical skill leading to the production of a new body of work.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. The budget for the Bursary programme in 2013/14 was £1.45 million to be distributed across three deadlines.

For 2014/15, ahead of the launch of the new open project funding routes to be announced in the summer with applications being accepted from October, there is a final deadline for the bursary programme: 5pm, Monday 4 August 2014.

For full details please visit: http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/funding-programmes/artists-bursaries

All funding updates will continue to be published on the website, and via regular email updates.

To receive these funding updates throughout this period, please sign up online here: http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/latest-information/funding-news

Creative Scotland has established a process of peer review for the Bursaries Programme which provides a range of expert opinion to inform decisions. A Bursary Panel, made up of arts and creative professionals and chaired by Creative Scotland, is convened for each deadline. Its task is to review all the applications received and agree the final awards. The January 2014 panel members were:

Kitty Anderson is curator at The Common Guild, a visual arts organisation based in Glasgow. She was previously Associate Director of The Modern Institute, Glasgow, and Associate Curator of Frieze Projects, the annual programme of commissions, talks and education at Frieze Art Fair, London. Recent projects with The Common Guild include ‘Some Thing’ by Roman Ondák, ‘Scotland + Venice: Sworn / Campbell / Tompkins’ for the 55th International Art Exhibition, the Venice Biennale and ‘The Foamy Saliva of a Horse’ by Carol Bove (all 2013). Kitty has also realised several freelance projects and contributed to various publications and exhibition catalogues.

Lizelle Bisschoff is a researcher in African film and the founder of the Africa in Motion (AiM) Film Festival, an annual African film festival taking place in Scotland, founded in 2006 (www.africa-in-motion.org.uk). Lizelle holds a PhD in African cinema from the University of Stirling in Scotland, in which she researched the role of women in African film. She has published widely on sub-Saharan African cinema and regularly attends African film festivals as speaker and jury member. After completing a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship on the emerging East African film industries at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies, she is currently a Research Fellow in Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow, where she teaches African cinema and continues her research on the African film industries.

Carol Main is director of Live Music Now Scotland and Live Music Now International Development (UK) and freelance music journalist, mainly as classical music editor of The List and music reviewer for the Scotsman. She is a member of the Board of Governors of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Board Director of the Association of British Orchestras, the Traditional Music Forum and, until recently, was a member of the Board of Directors of St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh.

Peter Urpeth is director (Writing & Publishing) of Emergents Creatives, a social enterprise established in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland to nurture creative talent and creative careers in the writing, publishing, fashion, craft and textiles sectors. For Emergents, Peter focuses on discovering and developing writers and writing projects with commercial potential. Prior to the establishment of Emergents Peter Urpeth was, for 10 years, HI~Arts’ Writing Development coordinator.  He is a novelist, poet, editor, ghost writer and journalist with more than 30 years experience in publishing having worked for titles as diverse as Time Out magazine and the Stornoway Gazette.

Sophia Yadong Hao is curator of Exhibitions, Cooper Gallery, and Visual Research Centre at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, where she leads an experimental and cross-disciplinary curatorial programme of commissions, exhibitions, off-site projects, artists’ and writers’ residencies and publications.

Frank McConnell is an award-winning choreographer and founding member of three significant dance companies – Scottish Dance Theatre and two based in the Highlands: Dannsa and plan B, the latter of which he is currently artistic director. He has created work for many dance and theatre companies including Northern Stage (England), Le Groupe de la Place Royale (Canada), and the National Opera in Holland. Frank feels equally at home working with a small community group in Ardross (Scotland). He moved to the Highlands in 1994 to work as dancer-in-residence for Ross and Cromarty District Council and to develop his growing love for Scottish step dancing and Scotland’s earlier dance heritage. Frank was one of the first individuals in the UK to be awarded a Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

Erica Morrison is chief executive of the National Gaelic Arts Agency. Erica was educated in Broadford Primary and Portree High School in the Isle of Skye and then graduated from Glasgow University in 1991 with an Honours degree in Celtic Studies – after which she studied Media and Communication Studies at Sabhal Mor Ostaig. Erica featured in the Gaelic soap opera ‘Machair’ for six years. Prior to Pròiseact nan Ealan, Erica was employed as the Western Isles Council’s Gaelic Arts Development Officer.  Erica lives in Point in the Isle of Lewis with her husband Alasdair and two of a family.

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Contact: Sophie Bambrough
Phone: 0131 523 0015
Email: sophie.bambrough@creativescotland.com
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