SCAN Summit

SCAN Summit is our annual flagship in-person event. Each Summit is themed around an urgent issue affecting both the arts sector and the world at large, placing SCAN’s work in expanded contexts. Participants include contemporary artists, curators and art workers together with writers, thinkers and experts from wider fields, offering a crucial opportunity for mutual learning, cross-sector networking, and exploration of the world we live in today. Through Summit, SCAN cultivates an atmosphere of peer support and mutual respect, fertile ground for curiosity and critical thinking.

SCAN SUMMIT 2026: TAKE LIBERTY

SCAN’s flagship conference Summit comes to Glasgow this year, with a focus on human rights and the arts. SCAN Summit 2026: Take Liberty is held ahead of a new Human Rights Bill, due to be advanced in Scottish Parliament in May 2026. If the bill is enshrined into Scots Law, the rights of all people in Scotland to participate in a cultural life will become enforceable.

At SCAN Summit 2026: Take Liberty, invited artists, academics, lawmakers and cultural workers from across disciplines will look at this new legislation and our intersecting human rights. A series of talks, activities and provocations will consider the implications of embedding the proposed new legal framework, and what it will mean for both contemporary art practice and civic life.

Book tickets here.

SCAN SUMMIT 2025: THE GRID

The title of our first summit in the Highlands was The Grid, with an aim to highlight the systems, both visible and largely unseen, that distribute power, energy and communications in literal and metaphorical ways. Drawing inspiration from new forms of energy generation, and old challenges about the distribution of power, The Grid focused on alternative energy, land and language, and the culture and politics of societies and systems in transition through artists’ talks, screenings, hands-on activities and readings.

SCAN Summit is our flagship opportunity to demonstrate our guiding principles: to cultivate, champion and connect the contemporary art sector in Scotland. In the context of a sector continually being asked to do more with less, over 80 attendees took a day out of their busy schedules to gather in person for shared discussion – fostering learning, resilience, and network strengthening.

By siting the SCAN Summit in Inverness this year, we also demonstrated that we actively listened to our membership and responded to requests for more Highlands-based programming. This connects with our ongoing work to strengthen contemporary art networks in the region, led by our Highland Development Lead Emma Gibson.

Programme

The Summit was programmed by SCAN Programme Lead Lydia Honeybone, with support from the full SCAN team.

The speakers at SCAN Summit 2025 were:

Harvey Dimond – artist/writer

Les Bicknell – lecturer/artist

Maria de Lima – artist/filmmaker

Flick Monk – environmental activist

Giulia Gregnanin – curator and Director of Timespan

Marianne Brown – author/journalist

Each speaker came with their own expertise in a niche field, speaking on topics ranging from the connection between the highland clearances and transatlantic slave trade to the possibilities and limitations of working as artist in residence at Sizewell C nuclear plant. Invited speakers came from varying backgrounds and levels of experience and were offered the opportunity to share their practices with peers and make connections between likeminded stands of research.

Breakout sessions on were facilitated by local artist-led initiatives:

Circus Artspace

Feminist Bird Club

Highland Zine Bothy

These sessions offered hands-on activities and opportunities for closer, deeper and informal conversations around the Summit topics.

We also championed the work of four additional artists through fringe programming:

Ursula Mayer – filmmaker

Emily Richardson – filmmaker

Gair Dunlop – filmmaker

Maria Fusco – writer

The two fringe events – a pre-conference screening and a post-conference deep listening event – expanded upon the ideas explored during Summit and helped further forge connections between audiences and artists.

Reflections

“I enjoyed the day so much – so many great speakers, presentations and especially the films and Q&A in the cinema, and nice to catch up with more local pals too. Truly brilliant to see an event like this up in Inverness” – Alexander Williamson, Photographer

“I felt it was valuable to hear how others were linking the political with the personal, how policy (or lack thereof) impacts how people live in and enjoy their environments. I really enjoy having the time carved out for me to listen to other artists speak about the links they are making in their practice to whatever is sparking their interest.” – participant feedback

“The energy in the room was shaped by the care and insight everyone brought… It felt like a rare and meaningful moment of collective reflection, punctuated by vibrant lunchtime chats and the pleasure of seeing both familiar and new faces.” – Iona Gibson, Highland Zine Bothy

“The gathering together of likeminded people, the deep dives taken into others’ work, the flagging of emerging concerns, the signposting to potential activism, the space to connect and talk (with a hearty lunch)…” – participant feedback

Read our full report on The Grid here.

Read reflections from participants here.

Listen to our podcast featuring talks from the Summit here.

PAST EDITIONS OF SCAN SUMMIT

2024

Titled Who can impress the forest, bid the tree, unfix the earth-bound root?, SCAN Summit 2024 took place at Birnam Arts in Perthshire. This edition of Summit marked 21 years of the Land Reform Act Scotland, in the context of ongoing issues of ownership of and access to land, affordable housing and green space in rural and urban Scotland.

Artists, thinkers, and writers contributing to the 2024 Summit included Dr Nadine Andrews, Alison Scott, Frances Davis, Dr. Josh Doble, Fionn Duffy and George Finlay Ramsay.

Listen to the 2024 Summit podcast series here.

2022

Titled NO! NO! NO! Cultural Work in Violent Times, the first post-lockdown Summit took place at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow. In the context of war, occupation, displacement and discrimination, this Summit sought to address global forces shaping working conditions and considered the means through which cultural work resists and upholds political violence.

Contributors to the 2022 Summit included Anna McLauchlan, Karrabing Film Collective, Amal Khalaf, Lara Khaldi, Tawona Sitholé and Alison Phipps.

Read a blog post reflecting on the 2022 Summit here.

2019

Taking place at Glasgow Women’s Library, SCAN Summit 2019 was titled Unsettled Status. Participants were asked to consider the progressive role that artists and arts organisations could take in a world defined by political tumult, borders and the hostile environment.

Contributors to the 2019 Summit included Peter Geoghegan, Chitra Ramaswamy, Maria Fletcher, Tanja Bueltmann and Aisha Jassat.

Read the report of the 2019 Summit here.