Guess what…Creative Scotland

From Matt Baker

(A personal view at a particular moment in time)

Listening in to mutterings around the steamies of late I’m detecting a very different atmosphere in the rural regions to the vibe coming out of the Central Belt. In the regions, I’m hearing that artists are increasingly uneasy about others continuing to bang the drum of protest. The feeling seems to be that time is long overdue to start rebuilding and use the recent debate in a positive way to collaborate on a refreshed and relevant future for the arts in Scotland.

In D&G I am aware of an atmosphere of optimism and excitement about the arts that I cannot remember before in my 16 years here. If you examine the genesis of nearly all of the initiatives that are causing the excitement then the hand of Creative Scotland is never far away. Credit where credit is due…..something is going right between our region and our national arts body.

The Creative Scotland Roadshow April 2011 - see contemporary report...here

It is maybe useful to reflect that it is only 18 months since the CS Roadshow rolled into D&G in a blaze of powerpoint, soft acid croft and corporate literature. We weren’t really sure what to make of all this – for one thing we very rarely saw the high heid yins of the old regime down in the SouthWest…..but we really weren’t sure about all this smoke and mirrors. In the immediate afterparty the message seemed to be all about what CS was going to do about sorting out the ‘problem of D+G’ – this seemed to consist of ‘models’ that had been tried elsewhere that could be ‘just what we needed’ even our language was in need of attention…..memorably Environmental Art was rechristened Enviro Art! We blinked in amazement, but held our nerve – this was a time when new currents were surfacing in the region and we wanted to show the world what we could do rather than be told how to be like others.

But then something changed, folk from Creative Scotland started coming to our events and gatherings and they were not telling us what we should do, instead they were listening and taking in what was happening…..gradually the ‘big ideas’ were replaced by small awards to small-scale ventures that were starting up. New conversations started between different partners like the Council, Carbon Centre, Holywood Trust etc. Ultimately this is down to individual people discovering a shared vision and having the nerve and the passion to make it happen – to me this is the change that I see happening in Creative Scotland – the big corporate vision is being blended now with individual officers given the responsibility to make a difference in places.

The Dark Outside (Robbie Coleman and Jo Hodges) Dark Skies @ Wigtown Book Festival

The theme of ‘Place’ has proved critical for us in D+G – the land is what binds us across great distances and we understand that creative practice of all forms reinforces that connection and feeds into so many other of the important issues in our lives.

Now the confidence gained through small initiatives is inspiring everyone to up the ambition and the region is buzzing like never before.

So, while there is still work to be done in refining the working methods of Creative Scotland as the brokers of a new partnership between artists and society………the SouthWest has much to applaud and be grateful for from CS.

Just some of the initiatives underway:

Wigtown – Creative Place award

Creetown – Creative Places award

Moat Brae (Centre for Children’s Literature) – Capital Grant

Star of Caledonia (aka Gretna Landmark) – Capital Grant

Big Burns Supper – project grant x 2

Dark Skies Residencies and Commission – project grant

The Stove – project grant
D+G Arts Festival

The Lost Supper – project grant
'Do Not Recussitate' (Climate Science and Art collaboration - Carbon Centre)

The Tide Machine – project grant

Artist + Craftmakers awards sheme

Talent Hub Incubator Fund

Environmental Art Festival 2013

Youth Arts Festival 2013 (still to be commissioned)
Wide-Open (development grant)

Literature Development Officer
Place Partnership support for the emergent D+G Regional Arts Structure

There will be more that escape me just now….please do add them below

Launch of Big Burns Supper Festival 2013 (23.11.12) - in cosmopolitan Dumfropolis now in its second year....hard to imagine it was just a twinkle in Graham Main and Simon Robertson's eye only 18months ago

It seems to me that, in our own quiet way, it would be good to balance some of the white noise of complaint coming from elsewhere – what do others think?