New areas join scheme for craftsmakers

A Scottish Arts Council initiative to provide more support to crafts has more than doubled the amount of funding available to individual makers.

Initially piloted in four areas – Highlands and Islands, Skye and Lochalsh, Shetland and Dumfries and Galloway – the scheme offered awards of between £50 and £1000 to makers which included match funding from the relevant local authority. 39 awards were made to individual artists.

The scheme has given individual makers support for networking, time to develop new practice and to spend time on research abroad.  Many of those awarded have been recognised in international competitions or selected for high-profile exhibitions.

The initial investment of £12,000 from the Scottish Arts Council successfully levered in almost £15,000 from the local authorities, generating a total of £27,000 available to support makers.

Following this success, the initiative has now been extended to include Fife, Falkirk and Stirling and, for 2008-09, Edinburgh, East Lothian, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire are also supporting the scheme.

The initiative has been run as a partnership between the Scottish Arts Council’s Crafts and Visual Arts departments, who are currently examining the potential for attracting new partners to the scheme.

For further details please contact the Scottish Arts Council Crafts Officer Hazel Townsend.