User:LesleyBooth/sandbox

{My sandbox}

History

== Deveron Arts is a contemporary arts organisation established in the Aberdeenshire town of Huntly [link to Huntly on Wikipedia] in 1995. It brings together international artists from a variety of disciplines and the town community through residencies that address issues with both a global and local dimension. Over 20 years this has brought artists from as far afield as China, the Americas, India, Africa and mainland Europe to North East Scotland. Uniquely, Deveron Arts has no dedicated art venue, but rather uses the town as the canvass for the residencies and the work created. The town is the venue residencies have also led to a number of annual events, including the Slow Marathon initiative, and the creation of a major collection of contemporary art in the town. This socially engaged practice that brings art out of the gallery context forms the focus of ARTocracy, a curatorial handbook published by Deveron Arts in 2010.

In 2008 Deveron Arts joined forces with the Huntly Development Trust and artist Jacques Coetzer to create a new branding for the town: Room to Roam and reprised the initiative for the Aberdeenshire [link to Wikipedia] region in 2014 with Aberdeenshire Ways. In 2012 Huntly won a Creative Place Award from Creative Scotland [link to Creative Scotland on Wikipedia] which supported the creation of a signature menu for the town, and in 2013 a further Creative Place Award led to a new initiative spearheaded by Deveron Arts: The Walking Institute. As part of its 20th anniversary year Deveron Arts has commissioned a new work inspired by Joseph Beuys seminal 7000 Oaks.

==

== The town is the venue residencies Room to Roam ARTocracy The Town Collection The Walking Institute Artist List References External Links ==

the town is the venue artist residencies

== A new model of artistic and curatorial practice has emerged that takes place in the public realm, but can’t be subsumed under the familiar category of “public art” ^[1]. Deveron Arts “The Town is the Venue” artist residencies, which have explored the history, context and identity of Huntly with the town acting as studio, gallery and stage for the artists, exemplify this new type of practice. Most residencies last three months, others have been over a more extended period, and see the artists researching and creating work that addresses topical issues – economic, social, political – that affect both the local community and the wider world. Over 80 artists from 23 countries across five continents have undertaken a Town is the Venue Residency since 1995. They include Baudouin Mouanda, Böller und Brot, Celia - Yunior, Dalziel + Scullion, Emily White, Gayle Chong Kwan, Gemuce - Pompílio Hilário, [[Hamish Fulton], Jacqueline Donachie, Kenny Hunter, Mihret Kebede, Nancy Mteki, Paul Shepheard, Paul Anderson, Peter Liversidge Priya Ravish Mehra, Roderick Buchanan, Ross Sinclair, Stéfanie Bourne and Utopia Group. Each artist leaves at least one work at the end of their residency, which has seen Huntly build up an unrivalled collection of contemporary art: The Town Collection. With the first of two Creative Scotland Creative Place Awards Deveron Arts invited leading food consultant Simon Preston to undertake a Town is the Venue residency in 2012. The Town is the Menu residency led to the creation of a signature menu devised to show off the best of the Aberdeenshire larder ^[2].

==

Room to Roam

== THIS is a story about a pop star and a 19th-century poet, an artist from South Africa and a little town in the north-east of Scotland. It's a story about what contemporary art can do in a small community: some pretty odd things, and some significant ones.^[3] In 2007 Deveron Arts put out an international call to artists to come to Huntly for an ambitious project to unite a disparate set of groups and create a branding for the town. The commission was awarded to Cape Town-based artist Jacques Coetzer who spent 6 months in the town developing the brand. During his research Coetzer came across the poem “Room to Roam” by acclaimed Victorian author and son of Huntly, George MacDonald and this led inevitably to the Waterboys setting of the poem. Through the residency Coetzer struck up a friendship with Mike Scott who donated the Waterboys’ setting of the poem to the town as its anthem. Coetzer’s branding was unveiled in 2008. Its overarching, flexible theme provided freedom for all kinds of groups and businesses to interpret the wider identity and promote both themselves and the area. The contemporary logo design reflects the traditional Scottish antler, a road map, social diversity, growth and energy. The Room to Roam branding was was officially accepted as part of the town crest by the Court of the Lord Lyon in 2010.

==

ARTocracy

== ARTocracy is a 20-year cultural experiment devised in a Scottish rural town, but with global potential. Two complementary methodologies - the town is the venue artist residency and the Shadow Curator – form the core of ARTocracy. Proposed by artist Nuno Sacramento, the Shadow Curator concept borrows from the

Shadow Minister role in Anglo-Saxon politics. The Curator is constantly (and agonistically) challenged in the development of topics and projects. Mary Jane Jacob from the School of Art, Chicago

is among the leading international curators to have taken on the role. In 2010 Deveron Arts published a curatorial handbook in collaborative practice critiquing the methodology and offering a practical guide to the development of socially engaged public art practice, and how ARTocracy might be applied in similar towns across the UK and beyond.

==

The Town Collection

== With each artist donating at least one work following their The Town is the Venue residency, Huntly has acquired a major collection of contemporary art, The Town Collection. Art hangs in bike and car shop Autospares and in a local estate agent. The words to the town song are etched on the walls of a local hotel. Work by Eva Merz hangs in a second-hand bookshop, and a massive mural by Dalziel + Scullion in the assembly hall of the Gordon Schools. There is even a striking print work hidden in Hilda’s cleaning closet in the local library [4]. The collection now numbers some 65+ pieces.

==

The Walking Institute

== For some years walking has formed an important part of Deveron Arts residency programme. In 2010 Hamish Fulton (link) made the 21 Days in the Cairngorms artwork which was largely about drawing attention to the existence of wild land in the UK ^[5] - as part of his town in the venue residency, and in 2012 Ethiopian artist Mihret Kebede introduced the Slow Marathon concept as part of hers. With numerous world records, Ethiopia has consistently produced some of the best long-distance runners in the world. Kebede’s project tapped into this tradition, but turned it on its head leading 100 people in a 26-mile slow walk in the countryside around Huntly ^[6]. In 2013 Deveron Arts formalised the programme in the Walking Institute, which explores, researches and celebrates the human pace, brings walking and journeying activities together with arts and other cultural disciplines. The 2013 Slow Marathon, Cabrach to Huntly, marked John Muir Day and the 2014 event started at the Glenkindie on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park. Other Walking Institute projects have included: In the Footsteps of Nan Shepherd: a long distance round walk looking at issues, plights and pleasures of women walking in wilderness and Hielan’ Ways, a programme that included poetry (Alec Finlay), music (Paul Anderson) and art (Simone Kenyon, Gillian Russel). Hielan’ Ways explored the old drover routes that cross north-east Scotland and culminated in a symposium with contributions from mountaineer Doug Scott , Turner-prize- winning artist Richard Long and the Cloud Appreciation Society.

==

Town is the Venue: Artist List

Year	Artist	Country of Origin	Residency Project	Description
1997	Ewan McClure	Scotland	The Three Degrees	Deveron Arts' first artist in Huntly. Paintings of local people in a realistic style.
1999	Julia Douglas	Scotland	Threadbare	Looking at Huntly's historic and contemporary connection to textiles
2000	Paul Carter	Scotland	Messiah 1/Chapel Barbarossa	Messiah 1 acted as a space-station whose purpose was the retrieval of the Messiah, and was installed in the Brander garden.
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External Links Deveron Arts: The Town in the Venue Deveron Arts: Walking Institute Huntly.Net, Room to Room Creative Scotland, Creative Place Awards [we can think of some more]

^ Jennifer Thatcher, ARTocracy and Parade, Art Monthly, September 2011
^ Cate Devine, Signed, sealed, delivered, Scottish Field, June 2013
^ Susan Mansfield, Room to Roam artistically, The Scotsman 24 June 2008
^ Phil Miller, North-east town of Huntly puts art on the map, The Herald, 15 March 2010
^ Emily Rodway, A Life’s A Walk, TGO December 2010
^ Walkers take part in Slow Marathon, BBC News website, 12 May 2014

[1] Jennifer Thatcher, ARTocracy and Parade, Art Monthly, September 2011

[2] Cate Devine, Signed, sealed, delivered, Scottish Field, June 2013

[3] Susan Mansfield, Room to Roam artistically, The Scotsman 24 June 2008

[4] Phil Miller, North-east town of Huntly puts art on the map, The Herald, 15 March 2010

[5] Emily Rodway, A Life’s A Walk, TGO December 2010

[6] Walkers take part in Slow Marathon, BBC News website, 12 May 2014

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