MSP visits to SCAN members show how artists strengthen communities
Throughout the year, SCAN facilitates MSP and MP visits to SCAN members’ studios, galleries, venues and production facilities, encouraging them to recognise the contribution that artists and organisations make to life in Scotland. By inviting an MSP to connect with a creative space or project in their constituency, we highlight the role that artists have in improving our everyday lives, strengthening our communities and the impact that learning skills from artists and taking part in creative activities can have on health and happiness. More importantly, we invite MSPs to take this experience back to parliament, where their first-hand knowledge could make a difference to communities across the country.
Here, SCAN Deputy Director Helen Moore reflects on this year’s visits, and the benefits of directly connecting key decision-makers with contemporary artists.
In August, we took Emma Roddick MSP to Inverness Creative Academy to meet artists working in her Highlands constituency. Emma toured the building, speaking to tenants of Wasps Studios including SCAN member Alice Prentice, who runs the community-focused printing project Isle of Riso. “The vast creativity being housed here is incredible and my team and I left feeling very inspired to think about how best to support this work and get involved,” said Emma of her visit. “This space has been so important for many artists, businesses and visitors who can all enjoy art as part of their daily life. SCAN’s effort to ensure that artists are being heard by policymakers, and encouraging politicians to think about what contemporary art is – including in the context of available funding – is a welcome challenge.”
Also in August, Sharon Dowey MSP visited Ayr to reconnect with Narture co-founders Robert and Saskia Singer. At the time, the father-daughter duo were starting to prepare for Rise Festival, a celebration of five years of creativity and community that they have worked so hard to foster in the town. Alongside seeing the cafe and bakery, the MSP for South Scotland learned more about all of the exhibiting, learning and wellbeing opportunities that Narture provides for local people. Plans for expansion are afoot too, with extra space acquired being intended for use as studio and residency space. The scale and reach of Narture’s projects are ambitious, with a focus on creating local opportunities and bringing visiting artists to the town.
In the midst of the Edinburgh Festival, Foysol Choudhury MSP visited Outer Spaces on Leith Street in central Edinburgh, where around 100 artists currently have studio space. This project, entitled the Cube Studio Programme, takes an experimental approach to building an artists studio community. With the aim of developing an active site of both production and engagement, the programme supports artists at various career stages, forming a unique peer group and cross-section of the Outer Spaces network. Outer Spaces director Shan Edwards told Foysol more about the organisation, which operates free studio space for artists across Scotland. Operating as a charity collaborating with artists, arts organisations and property owners, they work hard to activate the nation’s empty commercial spaces, transforming them into creative workspace.
Elsewhere in Ayrshire, MSP for West Scotland Neil Bibby met with the Wasps team and artist residents at Courtyard Studios in Irvine. Neil was delighted to meet this long-standing creative community, which has been based at Irvine’s harbour for almost 30 years. He learned about all of the teaching and workshop opportunities that are created for local people within the studios. Whilst we were there, artist David Reid was hosting his regular portrait workshop, where a group of artists meet every Friday to learn together. Neil also met Keith Salmon, who talked about how his interest in hill-walking informs his painting practice. The studio is well-integrated into the community, and many of the artists shared their interest in talking to locals and visitors who can explore the space whilst walking by the harbour.
At Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Patrick Harvie MSP visited an exhibition by the GoMA Youth Group. Now in its ninth year, the group is a thriving initiative of young adults aged 18-26 who meet weekly over the course of a year, creating exhibitions and delivering and taking part in workshops. Most importantly, they are forging friendships and building confidence. The exhibition, entitled How Are We?, highlighted this positive experience and included work by SCAN’s own Summer internship colleague, Lareina Yin. Lareina’s photographs celebrated her new ‘family of friends’ that she had made since coming to Scotland to study. Patrick also enjoyed stained glass and textile works by artist Isla O’Neill, who had found confidence through the group to exhibit her work for the first time.
In September, a meeting with Willie Rennie MSP at Forgan Arts Centre showcased the organisation’s interconnected approach to community art and nature. Meeting with SCAN Director Veronique Lapeyre and Interim Director Teri Laing in the gardens of the centre, Willie engaged in a far-reaching conversation about the positive outcomes of Forgan’s alternative schools programme, community dinners and the exciting new artist residency space they have set up to host artists and their families. The visit offered the opportunity to think about the possibilities of an art centre as a garden; a space for growth and renewal.
Paul Sweeney MSP joined us in November to visit the Common Guild, visual arts organisation based in Glasgow, with a varied public programme of exhibitions, projects and events, based in a former school building on the south bank of the River Clyde. Director Katrina Brown told Paul more about the Common Guild’s programme and how it spans to other spaces across the city, including libraries, music venues and office spaces. Paul also had the opportunity to see the most recent exhibition Afternoon Hearsay by artist Peng Zuqiang, co-commissioned by Common Guild and Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai.
It is amazing to work with members to showcase examples of new ways of working, and the importance of helping everyone to connect with their creativity. Our MSP visits demonstrate how artists and organisations can strengthen communities, reactivate high streets and towns, and bring people together – at a time when this feels ever more important.
We’ll continue to liaise with MSPs to share messages in the lead up to the Scottish Elections in 2026. Both SCAN members and MSPs can contact us if they would like to be involved in a visit.
Images:
1 + 2: Inverness Creative Academy by Alexander Williamson
3: Narture by Tom Flockton
4: Outer Spaces by Neil Hanna
5: Courtyard Studios by Alexander Hoyles
6: GoMA by Helen Moore
7 + 8: Forgan Arts Centre by Lydia Smith
9: Common Guild by Alexander Hoyles