Happy Hairst, fae Gaada
We've had a very busy term at Gaada, filled with lots of incredible growth and annoucements. Before we take a short Hairst (Shetland dialect for harvest) break to catch our breath, we thought we'd share a look back on the last few months...
Future Site puts Shetland at the centre
Creative Scotland Funding
Gaada's 2021/22 programme of visual art and community-led activities was awarded £93,566 from Creative Scotland to generate meaningful creative outcomes and lasting local resources by extending the safe space of Gaada’s visual art workshop, out into the Shetland landscape (and back again)! Find more information here. We look forward to sharing even more of the programme soon.
Future Site
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, Shetland. This builds on the work we currently carry out at Gaada and responds to the growing demand for more inclusive cultural space in Shetland. You can learn more about Future Site here.
STV feature
We welcomed STV into the Gaada workshop recently, after they approached us for a news feature. Amongst many things, we spoke about the organisation being artist-led, the positive impact art has on wellbeing, and our future plans. They fillmed one of our artist one-to-one sessions (which are the backbone to our week at Gaada) and showed lots of exciting prints being made by the team, including screenprinting the cover of the Weemin's Wark publication and creating a new edition by Struan Haswell, both of which will soon be in our online shop.
You can watch the STV feature here.
New editions
Our shop continues to grow, and this term we've added a beautifully dreamy riso publication from Shannon Leslie, which was made during her Gaada Workshop Bursary. We also welcomed the first ever edition from artist Rafferty, a lustrous gold and black riso print series of insects, take a look here.
A look into our busy open weekend at Gaada
Exhibitions
We were excited to show Jennifer McLeakintosh's exhibition, Git Ootside Inner Bairn, in Display, which featured a series of riso prints made during their Gaada Workshop Bursary.
We also hosted a very special exhibition, Mak A Laang Erm, which showed the work of 19 artists who had collaborated with Gaada over the past year. This exhibition extended from our outdoor exhibition space and into the Gaada workshop for a much enjoyed open weekend, read more below!
Doors Open Days
Opening our doors to welcome folk into a bright and busy Gaada workshop was a wonderful feeling and we were so pleased to see over 130 visitors over the weekend. Folk had a chat, enjoyed exhibition Mak A Laang Erm, printed a Gaada tote and went home with editions from our shop.
‘It's all there’, Anna Thomson
Gaada Workshop Bursaries
We are pleased to announce the following artists as recipients of Gaada's 2021/22 Workshop Bursaries; Andy Anderson, Jane Cockayne, Claire Davenport, Sally Huband, Christina Inkster and Anna Thomson (work pictured above). Keep an eye on our social media to see how their projects progress over the coming months!
Peer Group
Our 2021/22 Peer Group programme has begun with a slightly revised format now that we have moved out of lockdown restrictions. We were delighted to host the launch of the Illustrated Freelancers Guide as our first event and will soon be kicking off our Workshare's and Members Meet Ups.
A detail of the Hamnavoe Primary School murals
Hamnavoe Safe Haven
Gaada's ongoing collaboration with Hamnavoe Primary School saw us unveiling exciting new murals in the School's playground. We also announced a commission with Shetland aritst, Jono Sandilands, to make a welcome mural at the school. Jono is currently running very exciting workshops with P5,6+7 and we can't wait to see the mural take shape!
Shetland + Glasgow Artists Collab
An exciting new project from Project Ability and Gaada pairs Glasgow based artist Cameron Morgan with Shetland based artist and designer Elie Coutts. The project culminates in two exhibitions of collaborative works which will go on display in Shetland and Glasgow in the Spring of 2022. We will be sharing more as the project develops over the next few months. Big thank you to Project Ability, for commissioning the project and asking us to get involved!
In other very important news, Director Amy Gear has been appointed a Trustee of Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN). Amy joins six other art professionals whose jobs involve, amongst other things, marketing, fundraising, journalism, art education, artistic practice and curating.
As ever, thank you to the incredible network of folk surrounding Gaada, and to The Shetland Charitable Trust + Creative Scotland for funding us to do this work.
Sending warmth from Burra,
The Gaada team
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Gaada is kindly funded by Creative Scotland and The Shetland Charitable Trust
