Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

...All three have different remits and serve different communities but together the three organisations provide a visual arts infrastructure unique to Scotland which enables artists based here to make work across a range of disciplines, tap into professional networks and gain employment relevant to their skills. The Scottish Arts Council and the local authorities are investing in improving this infrastructure with substantial capital funding being awarded for a new building in Edinburgh and the re-development of the Briggait in Glasgow being jointly carried out by Glasgow Sculpture Studios and WASPS. These developments herald an exciting time for visual arts in Scotland both for artists wishing to build careers and for people who want to invest in contemporary visual art or participate in arts activities.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) provides studios, specialist workshops facilities and training for artists. Artists can often find themselves working in isolation but the community of studio holders and the professional staff team at ESW provides a support network which enables recent graduates as well as mid-career artists to develop and sustain a professional career. As well as providing opportunities for artists to make and show their work we also create employment for them on our education and outreach programmes and on public art and education projects in the community. These have an impact in areas as diverse as citizenship, social justice and environmental improvement.

Like many other arts organisations we have had to adapt our working spaces within an existing building which was not built for artistic use. A new fit-for-purpose building will mean that we can provide outstanding facilities for artists from all over Scotland and will provide new public and professional spaces.

Our plans involve creating the first purpose-built open access sculpture facility in Britain on our current site between the waterfront developments in Granton and Leith. 75% of the funding for the project has already been raised from the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Awards and the City of Edinburgh Council and we are currently fundraising for the remaining £1 million required to complete the project within the next two years. The exciting design by Sutherland Hussey Architects will create an inspiring modern facility to match the standards of major national and international arts venues and will enable us to promote Scottish visual arts worldwideThe new building will create a unique cultural resource within the local area. We will be able to offer audiences a means of exploring and defining their interest in contemporary visual art by providing opportunities to meet with artists and engage with the production of art and will be able to establish the workshop as an important centre for sculpture on a local, national and international level.

When our organisation established itself almost twenty years ago, we focused on accommodating artists’ needs and developing audiences for visual art and these two ambitions are still key motivations for the organisation. In 2007, our twentieth anniversary year, we are planning a programme of events which will look at future developments and investigate sculpture in a Scottish and international context and which will, we hope, encourage people to learn about or get involved in the processes involved in making art. See our website www.edinburghsculpture.org for further details.

Biography

Irene Kernan is Director of the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop where she has worked for the last three years. Previously she worked in arts administration in Dublin with independent theatre company Bedrock Productions and on the Dublin Fringe and Dublin Theatre Festivals.