SSA Newsletter August 2006
From the President
Congratulations and a BIG thank you to all of you for making
the Society of Scottish Artists such a stunning and exciting exhibition.
As the last of the polka dots from Pamela Schilderman's infinity of little
coloured balls is scraped from the top of the alcove in the Sculpture
Court, and the last of the crates are packed, we say goodbye to another
SSA annual exhibition. This year it seems to me to be one of
paper, plastic and projection..a strange mix of media and approach,
but rather wonderful for that. The last of our Indian artist friends,
S.Ravi Shankar, is leaving my home, but staying on in Edinburgh for a
month to sample the cultural extravaganza of the Festival. Ramachandran
Nagasamy is working away at the Edinburgh Printmakers, courtesy of their
SSA Award. and so the cultural legacy of the SSA goes on. For those of
us SSA members actually based in Scotland, we hope the pleasure of the
exhibition was shared and enjoyed. Every time I visited the Gallery, although
it was not crowded out, the evident pleasure and concentration of the
audience was palpable. All of our invited graduate work was fantastically
installed, the Bollywood billboard faced up towards the Old Town and Castle
with daring chutzpah and a defiant historical glitz. Magic!
This year the societies have paid £30,000 rent to the NGS,
we have paid for the warding staff and juggled dates between the RSA and
the NGS programmes. It is not easy to put on a show with such complexity
and ambition on such slender resources. As many of you know, our February
time slot was pushed forward to June 2006 by Timothy Clifford's last minute
scheduling of the Choice exhibition.
So our success is extra special.
Culture and art politics and status are always embedded in all
these decisions.
However much we artists may seek to hide in the studio, end
up either in a commercial camp or making installation art in a proposal-led
series of projects, the reality is that most of us guddle through trying
to keep our integrity, earn a difficult living and stay generous enough
to support each other. May the SSA continue to be that shared creative
field where we can celebrate our differences yet understand our common
problems. We will get the chance very soon to demonstrate our creativity
with our next annual exhibition in the Upper Galleries, scheduled for
mid-March (hand-in of open submission work approx March 1st) as well as
Body Parts 2007, our performance art mini-festival
in collaboration with the RSA scheduled for Feb 23rd-25th.
In November this year I shall be standing down as President
and look forward to spending more time making art and with friends and
family. I shall leave the SSA in the safe hands of an excellent Council and with the prospect of a
great new President elect. (mark your ballot papers NOW!)
In the meantime, Christopher Wood, who took over as Vice-President
from Jo Ganter in March, is doing a brilliant job, as are the small army
of volunteers who have helped us so much. Talking of services to the arts, I am delighted to announce
Richard Demarco as our new Honorary President, joining George Wyllie,
whose great work and creative wisdom have graced so many of our shows.
Ricky already has and will continue to give us great emotional and verbal
support. His passion for protecting the role of
contemporary art is second to none, and we are proud to have him with
us.
On a more practical but equally essential note, we are looking
for someone to take over from Joanne Soroka as Secretary. If you know of any really good arts administrators
looking for a new challenge, tell them about this vacancy. Here is the chance to become indispensable!
It has been a truly exciting time as President. I thank Joanne for all her practical support
and her total commitment to the SSA beyond just the job description. I
also thank those who have provided kind words, deeds and encouragement
from all parts of the art world n the face of daunting art politics. Make
no mistakeÑthe SSA is as strong as and more influential than ever.
Arts & Business
Following an interesting meeting with
the Professional Development Manager from Arts & Business, the SSA
has joined the Scottish Arts Development Forum. This is a group of around 140 arts development professionals
who meet quarterly in Edinburgh and Glasgow to hear presentations by guest
speakers, exchange information and discuss relevant issues. Membership allows access to A & B's
professional development programmes Skills Bank and Board Bank. Board Bank places business volunteers
from a wide range of sectors on the boards of arts organisations and museums,
and we have begun discussions to recruit someone with the particular business
skills and connections that will help in raising our profile and in our
ongoing need for funding. We
are also planning to make the best use of the Skills Bank once our new
Secretary is in place. Furthermore,
A & B have introduced us to the Scottish Executive New Arts Sponsorship
Award Scheme. This scheme has been set up to encourage
businesses to sponsor the arts in Scotland and will match any funding
(that meets their criteria) pound for pound. So if any member knows of a business that would be interested
in sponsoring the SSA-either in cash or in kind-please let us know.
Anything raised may be doubled by this scheme!
For further information, please see www.aandb.org.uk.
Christopher Wood
Vice-President
Introducing the new Honorary President Ð Richard Demarco
Without Richard Demarco, Edinburgh
would have been a much duller place over the past 50 years. His energy and exuberance are phenomenal,
and he has poured his talents into bringing to Edinburgh visual and performing
art we would otherwise never have had a chance to see and experience. One of the most influential figures in
the Scottish art world, he is also a prominent artist in his own right
, represented in hundreds of collections worldwide and a member of the
SSA since 1961.
Richard was born in Edinburgh in 1930.
He was co-founder of the Traverse Theatre in 1963.
Other highlights include bringing the work of Joseph Beuys and
Tadeusz Kantor to Scotland and introducing them to one another. From the 1960s to the 1990s he created the official Festival
exhibitions of international contemporary art and raised over £2m to fund
the projects. Recently Richard has started on the huge Skateraw project. This will provide a home for his extensive
and valuable archives in the venue near Dunbar. He has been awarded the rank of Officer
of the British Empire (OBE), is a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres de France,
a Cavaliere della Republica dÕItalia and was given the Gold Order of Merit
by the Polish government for his services to the arts. He is Emeritus
Professor of European Cultural Studies at Kingston University. He has also been elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Watercolour
Society for his own artistic achievements.
So we heartily welcome Professor Richard
Demarco, OBE, HRSA, HRSW, SSA as our new Honorary President, joining George
Wyllie. We know he is already
bursting with ideas for the challenging new role of the SSA in the 21st
century, building on the work of Kate Downie. He feels strongly that education and the visual arts
can and should be linked, and he is prepared to work on fundraising for
the SSA, a skill we strongly need.
SSA 2006 Prize winners
Henderson Art Shop Travel Prize £500 - Vanessa Bullick
Grampian Hospitals Arts Trust Purchase Prize - Liz Munro, Fireblue
Edinburgh Printmakers Award - Ramachandran Nagasamy
SSA Prize £400 - Kenneth Trayner
SSA Website Award - Graham Robertson and Ronald Plowman
Congratulations to all prize winners!
SSA
2007 and beyond
March
16th - April 14th 2007
Receiving
Day: March 1st approx
As
you can see, our next annual exhibition will be upon us in well under
a year, due to the usual messing about with our programming by the
National Galleries of Scotland. In response, we have decided to make 2007
the year when we represent as much of the work of our excellent members
as possible. There will be a break from inviting artists to exhibit from
a specific overseas country, and also no SSA on Screen programme
or tour. Both of these aspects take up an enormous amount of administration
and Council time which we do not have. On the plus side we are continuing
with Body Parts as well as an installation submission (including
video and DVD) and inviting a great crop of graduate artists selected
by our Council from the 2006 degree shows.
In 2007 we will be placed once again in the Upper Galleries of
the RSA and sharing the space with Visual Arts Scotland.
As
regards our exhibition prospects for 2008 and beyond, we have both good
news and not so good. Whilst we can ascertain that John Leighton, the
new Director of the National Galleries is essentially pro SSA, there so
far seems to be no actual guarantee of a date within the RSA Building
for 2008. We as an organisation will continue to campaign for better representation
within the gallery. We hope to be able to give you some news about a possible
venue and time in the near future. The NGS has assured us that they will
give us support in finding an alternative city venue if the RSA is unavailable.
On the excellent PLUS side, we are currently in the midst of plans for
an opportunity for SSA members to participate in an exchange residency
programme with artists from Norway as part of the Stravanger 'City of
Culture' Festival Programme. This is being organised with Angela Wrapson
who has long been a great supporter of contemporary arts in Scotland.
We hope to announce this project early in 2007, and it would involve studio
residencies in locations on both sides of the North Sea.
Body Parts and installation submissions
Body Parts
Deadline for submissions:
September 1st, 2006
Dates: Friday 23rd-Sunday 25th February 2007
Body Parts is back for its third year in collaboration
with the Royal Scottish Academy and will be an independent mini-festival
in advance of our annual exhibition, SSA 2007. Once again, we will be
constructing the festival on an open submission basis to provide a platform
for a fantastic selection of performances from the UK and abroad.
Venue:
The
Black-and-White Room, Gallery 7 and the Sculpture Court of the RSA Building
Submissions of no longer than 45 minutes are invited. They must include DVD, CD-ROM or photos,
with brief explanatory text (up to one A4 page) and brief curriculum vitae.
Please also enclose a handling fee of £10 per work (payable to
the Society of Scottish Artists) and an SAE with sufficient postage if
you want your work returned. Submissions to and further information
from the Secretary.
Installation submissions including video/DVD for SSA 2007:
Deadline for submissions:
September 1st, 2006
Installation proposals must include
visuals which may be up to five slides, CD-ROM, photographs and/or drawings,
with a written proposal (up to one A4 page). Please also enclose a handling fee of £10 per work (payable
to the Society of Scottish Artists) and an SAE with sufficient postage
if you want your work returned.
Submissions to and further information from the Secretary.
News in Brief
New Professional
Members of the SSA
Elected during
SSA 2006-Congratulations!
Sheila Carnduff
Liz Munro
New members
of the SSA
Welcome to the
new members who have joined the SSA since January!
Suzanne Chong,
Tessa Asquith-Lamb, Paul Hartley, John Brennan, Calum MacDonald, Christine
McLean, Clare Crines, Su Grierson, Carol Norris MBE, Elaine Forrest, Rowena
Comrie, Gill Shreeve, Patricia Scholey, Thomas Maxwell, Ingrid Bell, Thomas
Scanlon, Elma Colvin, Eleanor Carlingford Reeves, Joy Arden, Mooie Scott,
Zanna Wilson, Eugen Jarych, Roland Fraser, Natasha Kemp, Kate Sharp, Nancy
Steele.
Website success
stories
More reasons to
be included in the SSA website.
These are highlights of members who have had positive results as
the result of showing their pages at www.s-s-a.org.
Liz Douglas has found it a source of contact with galleries and curators
Vanessa Wenwieser was offered a show in Glasgow
Nan Mulder participated in an educational film about creativity
Silvana McLean was contacted by a buyer interested in a piece of her work,
who then bought three things. She
has also had several exhibitions as the result of the website.
Many others have
had their work researched on the website.
Magazine
at the Edinburgh Art Festival
Ziggy Campbell
of FOUND, Jessica Harrison and Aeneas Wilder, all featured artists during
Body Parts 2006 and SSA 2006, will be represented in ESW's major arts event
during the Edinburgh Festival.
With special
thanks to:
Chrissie Heughan,
Fiona Hutchison and Miriam Vickers for organising the threeÐday education
programme at the Weston Link of the National Galleries of Scotland, as
part of As Others See Us - Indian Art at the SSA. See photo page 2.
And to all the
volunteers without whom the annual exhibition could not happen.
Honorary Presidents:
Richard Demarco OBE
George Wyllie MBE
President:
Kate Downie
Council:
Calum Buchanan (co-opted) Chrissie Heughan
Fiona Hutchison
Ruth Pelzer Montada
Iain McColl
Judith Rowan
Miriam Vickers
Alan Watson
Christopher Wood
The
Society of Scottish Artists is an active network of artists with members
throughout the UK and abroad. Run
by and for artists since its inception in 1891, the SSA aims to provide
exhibition opportunities for artists, to promote education and communication
and to raise awareness of current art-making in Scotland.
Ordinary
membership
£40.
Professional
membership £50. (by
election only)
Membership
with SSA website page £75.
For
further information, contact the Secretary.