Future Site
Gaada searches for a site to create a new art space with accessibility at its heart.
Artist-led organisation, Gaada is calling on the Shetland community to help them find a suitable site for an exciting capital build project, after 18 months of hitting dead ends with landowners in the Scalloway and Burra area.
Gaada has partnered with Turner prize winning architecture and design collective, Assemble, to develop Future Site, an ambitious proposal for a community-focused visual arts workshop + project space in Scalloway. The site will be like no other that exists in the isles – pairing world class making facilities, friendly specialist support, and dynamic cultural activities that will nourish Shetlands growing creative community. Future Site builds upon three years of conversation and collaboration between Gaada and Shetland communities. During this time Gaada has been acknowledged alongside some of Scotland’s leading art organisations in national press and most recently securing significant support for its annual visual art programme from the Scottish Government cultural body, Creative Scotland.
“We are excited to share our proposal with the public after over two years of private discussion with local stakeholders. We truly believe Gaada can contribute massively to Shetland both in economic and cultural terms, and our partnership with Assemble will develop a permanent space that will enable Gaada to continue making art more accessible and inclusive for all Shetlanders long into the future” says Gaada director, Daniel Clark. The potential benefits of the Future Site proposal multiply dramatically when sited in Scalloway, not only for Gaada and the people who use the space, but for other businesses in the area. In November 2018 the Re-Create Scalloway Public Consultation (now adopted as the Scalloway Local Place Plan) identified the number one priority for Scalloway as the Redevelopment of the former Scalloway Youth Centre site “with a suitable replacement going in its place”. However, since many of the leads raised through that consultation have hit dead ends, Gaada is now directly calling upon the local community to help locate and secure an appropriate site.
This fit-for-purpose building will provide a fully accessible space for new and existing specialist printmaking and ceramic workshop facilities in Scalloway. These making spaces will be supported by a suite of digital tools as well as the organisation's growing library archive of artist publications. A flexible project space + gallery will also provide a permanent dedicated space in Shetland for individuals and groups to test out and share new creative projects and ideas in public, alongside exhibitions by professional artists in neighbouring Scotland and Norway.
Demand for Gaada’s activities has continued to grow throughout Covid, however the size and location of its current workspace, the 126-year-old former Methodist Kirk in Burra, means that the organisation has limited capacity and cannot provide much needed disabled access. The new site will include a ground floor Changing Places Toilet, available to visitors. Accessibility is also built into Gaada’s local activities, like Workshop Bursaries and Peer Group, which are made possible through funding support from the Shetland Charitable Trust and aim to provide creative development opportunities particularly to those facing barriers to accessing the arts.
This new building would enable the organisation to deliver more learning and development opportunities to people in Shetland, as well as creating more jobs in the arts and attracting more skilled creatives to the isles. A shop space will provide an in-person outlet for the editions made in the workshops, as well as provide a supported employment opportunity for artists accessing the workshop who live with a disability. The inter-linked relationship of these key spaces aims to foster a circular economy of opportunities for artists to develop their creative resilience and independence.
“Gaada have pioneered opportunities for artistic development with people often marginalised or unable to access mainstream opportunities. They have done so in a way that creates a safe and supportive environment, whilst enabling people to explore and realise their hidden potential”. Mark adds “in addition Gaada has supported local partners to develop their systems to enable disabled people to exercise real choice and control over the resources available to them.”
The proposal already has wide ranging local and national supporters including Scalloway Community Council, Self Directed Support Scotland, Scalloway Community Development Company, and of course from collaborators Assemble, who work across the fields of art, design and architecture to create projects in tandem with the communities who use and inhabit them.
“We are really excited to be working with Gaada and the arts community in Shetland on the development of their future site - a project built by and for its community, deeply connected to its place”
“We want to put Shetland culture at the centre of Scotland’s art landscape, by supporting the development of local skills and ideas with inclusive and accessible making spaces” Daniel Clark adds that “artists possess a wide variety of practical and problem-solving skills, and we’ve found that widening access to this through a supportive workshop environment, builds resilience and independence in people whilst also putting out new and exciting ideas and skills back into the local community. Not only that, whilst also increasing the position of Shetland as a place to visit and work for young people.”
What Next / How to get involved!
Our biggest hurdle is finding a suitable site to begin the development. We have explored many avenues, and we are keen to hear from folk who have any ideas. You can do this by going to the Gaada website, and getting in touch via the Future Site page.
Assemble
A multi-disciplinary collective working across architecture, design and art. They platform a democratic and co-operative working method that enables built, social and research-based work at a variety of scales, both making things and making things happen.
— http://assemblestudio.co.uk/
Gaada
We are an artist-led, not for profit Community Interest company, dedicated to improving access to art making facilities + creative development in Shetland.
— http://www.gaada.org/