Other breakouts are repeated as in the morning with the addition of Participative Arts Workshop;
Artist and writer Suzanne Lacy will discuss a few projects from her thirty years as a performance artist and public activist, demonstrating how her interdisciplinary concerns have informed, even built, new public(s) for art. Innovation is the very nature of arts-based research, a notion of knowledge production fostered by UK universities and colleges.
Seeking out audiences in communities long ignored by the arts while addressing the trajectory of art history through her innovative and evolving practice, Lacy advocates for visual arts to take its place as a change agent in the public realm.
Anne Douglas and Chris Fremantle will join Suzanne Lacy for the Up Close session connecting the issues raised in her keynote with recent practice-led research. 'On the Edge' is concerned with the changing nature of public, in particular arts practice in Scotland in relation to international practices and discourses further afield. Discussion will open with two key questions: In what sense does Lacy's practice constitute an aesthetic of the public sphere? How does this aesthetic specifically evolve notions of public?
On each day of the Summit Miles Harrison will be facilitating ‘Creative Conversations’. These will be opportunities for delegates to be creative, subversive, counter intuitive, provocative and to have their say on the theme of the day:
Is there still a place for cultural excellence and national cultural identity in an ever-homogenous, sometimes ephemeral, on-line and ‘shoot-‘em-up’ world? The world is in the early but rapid stages of communication technology change.
The World Wide Web is entering a significantly different phase in its usage model, where multi-player games, user-generated content and new, non-mediated publishing models are creating business challenges to traditional content generators and publishers, as they rapidly become the norm.
The very purpose of the content providers, including game developers is changing: from a traditional commission-distribute model, to an interim acquire-host model, to an emerging showcase-download-secondary market model. This is challenging the established business practices of all publishers and broadcasters, and indeed is challenging the existing laws and agreements regarding property rights, ethics and access.
This session will examine questions including: how have games catalysed these changes, and how might they also be one of the answers to the problem? How are games changing and where are they going in the future? What are the platforms, genres, revenues and cultural value of tomorrow’s interactive entertainment?
This session by Mathew Fitt provides an exciting exploration of the Scots Language as an educational and creative force. Matthew is a writer, teacher, former Brounsbank Writing Fellow, co-founder of Itchy Coo, author of But n Ben A-Go-Go, and translator of Roald Dahl children's classics The Eejits and Geordie's Mingin Medicine.
www.itchy-coo.com
Provocateur Mystery Tour: Gerry Hassan has Left the Building
Gerry Hassan
Put yourself in Gerry's hands for an hour and a half of exploring the city as well as the Cultural Summit and its themes. In a one to one/intimate group, this is an opportunity to tell him what you really think - what more could a delegate ask for...?
Janice Forsyth is a well-known face and voice in the arts and media.
A key presenter and seasoned interviewer on BBC Radio Scotland, she hosts her own Saturday morning music and chat show as well as regular strands - The Radio Cafe and The Movie Café and many other programmes.
Janice has presented a wide range of TV programmes for STV, BBC and Channel 4; and on radio for Radio 3, Radio 4 and Five Live. She has written columns and features for numerous publications including The Scotsman, Daily Record, The Herald and New Statesman.
Before moving into journalism and broadcasting, she worked in the arts - for organisations including The Glasgow Jazz Festival, the Assembly Rooms, Scottish Theatre Company, Theatre Royal, Glasgow Style, and was one of the original team behind Glasgow's Mayfest. She currently serves on the board of the children's inclusive arts company, Giant.
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Gerry Hassan is a writer, researcher, policy analyst and commentator, who has worked on a range of Scottish, UK and international subjects. He has worked on many books about Scottish and UK politics, including |
- 'The Dreaming City: Glasgow 2020'
- 'Power of Mass Imagination' (2007)
- 'Scotland 2020: Hopeful Stories for a Northern Nation' (2005)
- The Political Guide to Modern Scotland (2004)
- 'The Scottish Labour Party: History, Institutions and Ideas' (2004)
- 'After Blair: Politics after the New Labour Decade' (2006)
Forthcoming publications by Gerry will be looking at the nature of the contemporary SNP in government, the state of Scottish Labour, the changing character of the UK and in a break from the above an exploration of post-war Scotland, working class culture and the meaning of football. Recent research by Gerry has included
- the next twenty years of the United Kingdom
- the emerging thinking and track record of Gordon Brown
- Britishness and how this informs government policy
Gerry is also commissioning and editing a special issue of the ideas journal Renewal on arts and culture, covering such subjects as how do we speak about the arts, the meaning of creativity and innovation, a critique of Richard Florida, and the rise and fall of cultural Britishness.
Gerry has headed up two aclaimed Demos programmes - Scotland 2020 and Glasgow 2020. Glasgow 2020 was a 'mass imagination' project - which used the idea of the stories people tell to examine different futures – and what was also a ‘futures literacy’ project – addressing how we can democratise the future and involve as many people as possible in shaping and deciding the future.
Gerry runs a twice yearly weekend at The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool called Changin' Scotland - which aims to bring together organisations and individuals for constructive dialogue, music and film that nurtures change - and the idea of having a good time (the next one: March 14th-16th 2008).
Gerry works with a range of artists and cultural practioners on ideas of how the arts can inform policy. Recently he worked with Suspect Culture on their revue ‘Futurology’ and has been a key contributor to numerous bodies including the Centre for Confidence and Well-Being and the Scottish Parliament’s Futures Forum. Gerry has also supported ideas and discussion via commissioning, publishing and publicising a range of authors – notably;
- 'The Scots’ Crisis of Confidence' by Carol Craig
- a new edition of 'The Break-Up of Britain' by Tom Nairn
- a critique of the knowledge economy by Paul Thompson.
He is a regular commentator in the Scottish and UK media, speaker at events in Scotland, UK and internationally, an Associate Editor of the journal Renewal and an Honorary Research Fellow at Glasgow Caledonian University.
A graduate of Edinburgh University, Jim came to the arts via an earlier career in community education. He established the award winning WHALE project (Wester Hailes Arts for Leisure and Education) in Edinburgh, a role that included direct involvement in youth theatre as well as the development of a venue during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
In June 1998, he was appointed to the post of Combined Arts Director at the Scottish Arts Council. He became Director of Arts in January 2003 and since March 2007 has been Acting Chief Executive.
Miles is an independent meeting facilitator and organisation development consultant. He has particular expertise and experience in the cultural sector in managing change, board development, leadership and governance.
He previously worked for the leadership development organisation Common Purpose as Programme Director between 2002 and 2006 where he opened and developed the new Mid Scotland office. He moved to Scotland in the summer of 1998 and began work for the Scottish Arts Council as Senior Development Officer (National Lottery). In April 2000 he became the manager of the SAC Lottery funded Advancement Programme - a scheme to help organisations achieve lasting positive change.
Previously Miles was Head of Arts Business Services at Yorkshire Arts Board where his work included all areas of management and marketing development for those who work in the arts. Other positions have include working with a commercial tour operator, business advisor in Liverpool for 4 years, a Marketing Manager for the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff & Theatre Clwyd in Mold and Director of the Arts Business Centre at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside. Miles has run many training courses in business planning, management and marketing.
He is currently the Vice Chair of the Macrobert Arts Centre Committee.
Paul Harris graduated in Photography from Birmingham College of Art & Design in 1980. He subsequently worked in broadcast television as a documentary editor for a Channel 4 & S4C independent, and as a lighting cameraman for the BBC and Central Television.
He later became a freelance director and independent producer for a range of broadcast and large corporate clients. Since 1994 Paul has taught film, television and digital media production in a number of Scottish institutions, specialising in writing for media, narrative development, cinematography and visual language.
He has delivered a number of consultancies into the Scottish Computer Games industry, aimed at: enhancing writing for interactive narrative; improving cinematography skills for animators and environmental modellers; lighting design for enhancing dramatic effect; and working as a director of cinematography on the children’s game, Brave.
Paul’s current focus is on enhancing the viability and sustainability of the Scottish interactive industries, by establishing the Whitespace resource, aimed at supporting sector businesses and the associated freelance workforce in gaining new skills, diversifying their markets, and collaborating on major joint projects.
Paul has won many Scottish Students on Screen Awards, several International Visual Communication Association Awards, two Royal Television Society Awards, a BAFTA Scotland for best new documentary talent, and a British Academy Award for best short film
He has been a member of Skillset’s United Kingdom Tertiary Education Forum for the audio-visual industries, and has served on BBC Scotland’s Music, Arts & Entertainment, Independent Review Panel.
Until recently Paul was Chairman of the Angus Digital Media Centre (ADMC), Chair of the Project Advisory Board of the Scottish Executive’s Future Learning and Teaching funded Moving Image Education project, a Board Member of Scottish Screen, and Chairman of the Scottish Screen Investment Panel. He is co-founder of Bridging the Gap, a digital-cinema documentary production scheme, and is a Governor of the Patrick Allan-Fraser of Hospitalfield Trust. He was recently appointed to the Board of Scottish Enterprise Tayside.
Rhona is a theatre producer dedicated to working in the children’s theatre sector in Scotland for nearly 6 years. After working on the Wee Stories Early Years project, Rhona developed an interest in work for young audiences and is the Project Manager for Starcatchers, the first project in Scotland dedicated to the development of theatre for children aged 0-3 and their parents or carers.
In addition, Rhona produced Heather Fulton’s production of Moussa’s Castle which toured Scotland in 2007, including performances at The Bank of Scotland Children’s International Theatre Festival and will tour England in 2008. She is also working with Puppet State Theatre to develop touring programmes for their acclaimed production of The Man Who Planted Trees.
Jo is a promoter and producer specialising in theatre for the very young. Based in London, she has worked part-time at Polka Theatre and is now the Associate Producer for Early Years.
In 2006, Polka became a partner within Small Size, a European network cultivating the performing arts within early childhood and extending the exchange of skills, knowledge and practice within this field.
In her freelance capacity, she is an early years theatre and arts consultant and is a member of the Starcatchers steering group.
Tony joined Imaginate in 1996 after working in various capacities with a range of Scottish theatre organisations, including 7:84, TAG, Pen Name, Rain Dog and Visible Fictions.
Originally the Scottish International Children’s Festival, Imaginate is a year-round organisation, with a range of initiatives and events aimed at promoting and developing performing arts for children in Scotland.
Imaginate’s vision is that all children in Scotland, by the age of twelve, will have had a positive experience of performing arts.
Tony is passionate about the arts playing a central role in stimulating the education and creativity of children and young people.
Sarah is currently CEO/Artistic Director of Collective and will take up a new position as head of Tramway in April 08. She has brought numerous international artists to Scotland for the first time as well as given many Scottish based artists their first major solo show including
- Matt Stokes
- Mike Nelson,
- Wael Shawky and
- Arthur Zmijewski.
Her initiatives include New Work Scotland, Offsite 2004 and the One Mile Programme.
Graham Leicester is Director of the International Futures Forum (IFF). IFF seeks out difficult, complex, seemingly intractable issues and works to support businesses, governments and communities in addressing them more effectively. Project work focuses on the areas of health, learning, enterprise and governance and examples include
- the long term management of radioactive waste
- tackling energy security and climate change
- urban regeneration
- the psychologically healthy corporation
- the ecology of the arts and
- learning in all its guises – including policy learning.
IFF was established in 2001 with a generous grant from BP. Its signature publication is Ten Things to do in a Conceptual Emergency.
Graham previously ran Scotland’s leading think tank, the Scottish Council Foundation, founded in 1997. From 1984-1995 he served as a diplomat in HM Diplomatic Service, specialising in China (he speaks Mandarin Chinese) and the EU. Between 1995 and 1997 he was senior research fellow with the Constitution Unit at University College London. He has also worked as a freelance professional cellist, including with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Kate is an independent consultant who advises artists and organisations across the contemporary performing arts. After working as a general manager in contemporary dance and at the London International Festival of Theatre, she became a consultant in the mid 1990s, and combines strategic consultancy and advice giving with periods of direct responsibility for running organisations or projects. She has worked with Arts Council England, helping to develop policy, running grant programmes and working as Head of Theatre at Arts Council London during 2004. ‘The Producers – alchemists of the Impossible’, which came out in 2007, was Kate’s first book, jointly commissioned and published by Arts Council England and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
Helen Marriage
Helen is a co-director of Artichoke which she founded with Nicky Webb in 2002. Artichoke is one of the country’s leading independent production companies, recently responsible for the presentation of Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant on the streets of central London. Previous work has included a seven year period as Director of the Salisbury Festival which she transformed from a local affair to what The Times described as a ‘miracle of modern British culture’. Helen came to Salisbury after creating the first Arts & Events programme for the developers of Canary Wharf in London. Prior to that she was an Associate Director of the London International Festival of Theatre. She began her working life with the inspirational Judith Knight at Artsadmin where she worked, managing a variety of independent artists in the early 1980s.
Alex Smoke is a new breed of electronic music producer. His music may reside on the dancefloor along with his renowned live sets, but it also resonates so much further; with a production style drawn from a myriad of influences that blur the boundaries between electronica, techno, classical and hip hop.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Alex's proficiency in multi-faceted electronic-beat-making is founded securely on a lifetime of classical training, nurtured not least by his mother, by profession a music teacher. At a young age, Alex received a coveted scholarship for Durham Cathedral Choir School, where he excelled on the cello, piano and drums. After a brief glitch, studying marine biology, Alex soon got back on track, wisely using his student loan to buy his first apple mac computer and simple software, giving his imagination the necessary tools to begin producing.
It didn't take long. after his first release in 2002 on local Glasgow label "s.u.d.", Alex was soon snapped up by the legendary dance music label, soma records, on which he released his seminal first album, "incommunicado" to critical acclaim in 2004. This deeply emotive release utilized cutting edge production techniques to give birth to a beguiling new style, which was lauded throughout the house and techno community. Upcoming Berlin indie label Vakant immediately recognized this young producer's talent and provided a platform for a series of ep releases that continued to tantalize enthusiasts not only within the techno-driven German capital, until the keenly anticipated arrival in 2006 of album no. 2, "paradolia", back on Soma.
Throughout his relatively short career Alex has become an in-demand remixer, already with remixes for steve reich, depeche mode, mylo, junior boys, funk d’void, radio 4, jay haze and envoy under his discography belt, to mention but a few.
2008 will witness Smoke's third studio album and the development of his live set to include more hardware equipment and thereby expand his boundaries and resonance even further.
Paul founded Boilerhouse in 1992 and has produced, written and directed productions that have take place in a range of extraordinary locations both local and international, ranging from a Pacific oceanfront to the Formula 1 circuit in Monaco and include the largest single ever aduience for a Scottish theatre company. Paul has inspired large and diverse teams in the pursuit of a common goal; these have included collaborations with designers, choreographers, composers, aerialists, car mechanics, pyro-technicians, and video artists.
Paul served on The Scottish Arts Council's Drama Committee for 5 years as well as sitting on the working party for The National Theatre of Scotland. In addition he was a Board Member for The Independent Theatre Council - the industry lead body in the UK for all professional theatre companies - and a member of the Steering Committee for Scottish ITC.
Graduate of the twinned universities of Caen and Portsmouth with a Degree in Economic Sciences and of University of Rouen with a Masters in Conception and Implementation of Cultural Projects. Graduate in Jazz and Classical music of the Regional Academy of Caen and Chichester College of Art Science and Technology.
Began professional activity in the Street Arts field in 2000, working on the reception of the professionals during the festival “Viva Cité” and then work experience of two and a half months within the team of Zap Production (currently Zap'Art) in Brighton.
Atelier 231 since September 2002, as Administrator and Responsible for the European Projects (IN SITU/Culture 2000 and PECA/Interreg) in link with the Director Daniel Andrieu.
Since 2002, participation in the debates and working sessions on Street Arts Development in England, each year at the "National Street Arts Meeting" in Brighton. Also during other seminars such as those held in Hastings during the festival Coastal Current in the Streets in 2004 and 2005: "The Virtual Creation Center - How to make it a reality?" or “Professional Development of Street Artists within the PECA partnership – Developing a Model for Good Practice and Strategy for the Future”.
A graduate of Edinburgh University with an MA in psychology, Morag initially trained as a Careers Officer working in schools and colleges around West Edinburgh before being appointed as a lecturer in Careers Guidance at the University of Paisley.
After five years and gaining a MSc in HR from Strathclyde University, she worked in the Scottish Enterprise network before returning to Paisley University. There she worked initially as a project manager, developing and researching access to higher education for disadvantaged groups and then as Director of Continuing Education at the university’s Ayr campus.
After a period of restructuring at Paisley she was promoted to the role of Director of Corporate Communication. After gaining a post graduate qualification in Marketing, Morag was appointed in 1999 as Director of Marketing at Napier University.
Morag joined the Scottish Arts Council in January 2005 where she is Director of Planning and Communications.
Tom Shakespeare trained as a sociologist. In addition to an international reputation for speaking and writing in the fields of disability and bioethics, he has experience in stand-up comedy, live art, theatre and dance. From 1999-2003, he commissioned and curated sci-art projects for Newcastle's PEALS Institute. Since 2003 he has had a NESTA Fellowship to develop his own creative work: he is currently in the last stages of a life writing project, ‘No Small Inheritance’. Tom is chair of Arts Council North East and a member of Arts Council England.
Keynote
Getting Under the Skin; Creative Encounters between Art Ethics and the Body
Dr Tom Shakespeare
NESTA Fellow and Chair of Arts Council North East
Performance
‘Coos, Braes & Eejits’
Matthew Fitt
Itchy Coo
Keynote Up Close
Dr Tom Shakespeare
Provocateur Mystery Tour: Gerry Hassan has Left the Building
Gerry Hassan
Other breakouts are repeated as in the morning with the addition of Participative Arts Workshop;
‘Heid, Lugs, Mooth, Hert’
Matthew Fitt
Off the Wall, Out of the Box: A Few New Ways (Maybe) To Make a Difference
Suzanne Lacy
Artist and writer Suzanne Lacy will discuss a few projects from her thirty years as a performance artist and public activist, demonstrating how her interdisciplinary concerns have informed, even built, new public(s) for art. Innovation is the very nature of arts-based research, a notion of knowledge production fostered by UK universities and colleges.
Seeking out audiences in communities long ignored by the arts while addressing the trajectory of art history through her innovative and evolving practice, Lacy advocates for visual arts to take its place as a change agent in the public realm.
Anne Douglas and Chris Fremantle will join Suzanne Lacy for the Up Close session connecting the issues raised in her keynote with recent practice-led research. 'On the Edge' is concerned with the changing nature of public, in particular arts practice in Scotland in relation to international practices and discourses further afield. Discussion will open with two key questions: In what sense does Lacy's practice constitute an aesthetic of the public sphere? How does this aesthetic specifically evolve notions of public?
Anne Douglas is a Research Professor at Gray's School of Art, The Robert Gordon University and Director of On the Edge Research.
Chris Fremantle is a research associate and founder member of On the Edge, a cultural historian, arts producer of recent projects such as Greenhouse Britain and fundraiser working on projects such as Remember Sarowiwa project for PLATFORM.
On each day of the Summit Miles Harrison will be facilitating ‘Creative Conversations’. These will be opportunities for delegates to be creative, subversive, counter intuitive, provocative and to have their say on the theme of the day:
- Highlight and discuss ‘what’s not on the agenda’ - but should be!
- Discuss the issues you feel a creative nation should be addressing
- Use Creative Conversations to test and develop your ideas
Miles will be using a variety of facilitation techniques
Delegates wishing to have their voice heard in a Creative Conversation
can email their thoughts in advance to Cultural summit - tell us what you really think!
Is there still a place for cultural excellence and national cultural identity in an ever-homogenous, sometimes ephemeral, on-line and ‘shoot-‘em-up’ world? The world is in the early but rapid stages of communication technology change.
The World Wide Web is entering a significantly different phase in its usage model, where multi-player games, user-generated content and new, non-mediated publishing models are creating business challenges to traditional content generators and publishers, as they rapidly become the norm.
The very purpose of the content providers, including game developers is changing: from a traditional commission-distribute model, to an interim acquire-host model, to an emerging showcase-download-secondary market model. This is challenging the established business practices of all publishers and broadcasters, and indeed is challenging the existing laws and agreements regarding property rights, ethics and access.
This session will examine questions including: how have games catalysed these changes, and how might they also be one of the answers to the problem? How are games changing and where are they going in the future? What are the platforms, genres, revenues and cultural value of tomorrow’s interactive entertainment?
Delegates will be joined by some young children for a performance of ‘My House’ a piece of work created by Andy Manley, one of the original Starcatchers Creative Artists. There will be an opportunity to see how the children interact with and respond to the work.
The session will also look at how the Starcatchers project sits alongside other work for this pre school age group taking place in the UK and across Europe.
From Curator to Producer; How Connecting with Audiences is Influencing Artists Development
Sarah Munro
Sarah Munro and Mel Brimfield are interested in artistic structures that enable a broad range of cultural practitioners to exchange ideas and develop collaborative partnerships. This session will explore work in this area, with particular consideration to the role of participatory practice and performance practice within the contemporary visual arts.
Graham, Mission Models Money(MMM), will explain the work International Futures Forum are beginning for Mission Models Money on a new conceptual framework for understanding how to support a healthy ecology of the arts and culture.
Last year, Arts Council England and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation published 'The Producers - alchemists of the impossible'. Written by Kate Tyndall, it aims to celebrate and explore the role of the producer in the arts, looking at the stories of a selection of individuals working across the arts to discover the qualities, vision and energy that drive them. One of those featured was Helen Marriage, Director of Artichoke and responsible for bringing the unprecedented Sultan's Elephant to London in May 2007.
This session brings Helen together with Vicky Featherstone Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland, in a conversation with Kate Tyndall to look at the role of the producer, the qualities that it demands, the structures that can unlock this role to its full potential.
Synthesis, Plugins and the cutting edge of electronic music production
Alex Smoke
Alex will take delegates on a tour of sound production and design, composition techniques from algorithmic to classical. Explore the merits of the new 'out there' design platforms including Symbolic Sound, Kyma, Logic Pro, Virtual Instruments (Pluggo, Vienna Symphonic Instruments, GRM Tools etc)
Paul, Anne and Jaine will discuss the routes by which new performance work might be created. Using the French street arts 'Creation Centres' as a stepping off point for discussion of street arts, performance and other artforms, this session will look at ways in which artists might be supported to create work in the future.
The Scottish Arts Council describe the process of change and development that has been on going since 2005 in the development of the quality framework which now shapes their expectations of the organisations they fund.
The challenges and changes that this process has required of the Scottish Arts Council are identified while Gwilyn Gibbons will chart and describe how Shetland Arts Development Agency has responded to the quality framework in terms of continuous change and development in all the things that it does including how this led to the development of their Hansel for Art.
Practical Podcasting for Creative Industries
Dougal Perman
Inner Ear will present an interactive seminar on podcasting in creative business development. We'll explore three examples of how podcasts are used in external marketing, internal communications and revenue generation. Participants will be split into three groups and given a scenario. They must then create a plan for how they would use podcasting in one of those three areas.
The Inner Ear team will spend time with each group discussing the practicalities of each plan, introducing problems and offering solutions. The planning exercise will be a game, each group will have a budget which can be spent on purchasing hardware, software and services to aid their projects. At the end of the session, each plan will be evaluate and constructively criticised to determine to what extent it would succeed in the real world.
Getting Under the Skin; Creative Encounters between Art, Ethics and the Body
Dr Tom Shakespeare
Tom is a NESTA Fellow and Chair of Arts Council North East and will be exploring how artists have engaged with bioethics and biomedicine, and the role of art in enabling us to think creatively about complex issues such as disability and genetics.
This session by Mathew Fitt provides an exciting exploration of the Scots Language as an educational and creative force. Matthew is a writer, teacher, former Brounsbank Writing Fellow, co-founder of Itchy Coo, author of But n Ben A-Go-Go, and translator of Roald Dahl children's classics The Eejits and Geordie's Mingin Medicine.
Provocateur Mystery Tour: Gerry Hassan has Left the Building
Gerry Hassan
Put yourself in Gerry's hands for an hour and a half of exploring the city as well as the Cultural Summit and its themes. In a one to one/intimate group, this is an opportunity to tell him what you really think - what more could a delegate ask for...?
Janice Forsyth is a well-known face and voice in the arts and media.
A key presenter and seasoned interviewer on BBC Radio Scotland, she hosts her own Saturday morning music and chat show as well as regular strands - The Radio Cafe and The Movie Café and many other programmes.
Janice has presented a wide range of TV programmes for STV, BBC and Channel 4; and on radio for Radio 3, Radio 4 and Five Live. She has written columns and features for numerous publications including The Scotsman, Daily Record, The Herald and New Statesman.
Before moving into journalism and broadcasting, she worked in the arts - for organisations including The Glasgow Jazz Festival, the Assembly Rooms, Scottish Theatre Company, Theatre Royal, Glasgow Style, and was one of the original team behind Glasgow's Mayfest. She currently serves on the board of the children's inclusive arts company, Giant.
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Gerry Hassan is a writer, researcher, policy analyst and commentator, who has worked on a range of Scottish, UK and international subjects. He has worked on many books about Scottish and UK politics, including |
- 'The Dreaming City: Glasgow 2020'
- 'Power of Mass Imagination' (2007)
- 'Scotland 2020: Hopeful Stories for a Northern Nation' (2005)
- The Political Guide to Modern Scotland (2004)
- 'The Scottish Labour Party: History, Institutions and Ideas' (2004)
- 'After Blair: Politics after the New Labour Decade' (2006)
Forthcoming publications by Gerry will be looking at the nature of the contemporary SNP in government, the state of Scottish Labour, the changing character of the UK and in a break from the above an exploration of post-war Scotland, working class culture and the meaning of football. Recent research by Gerry has included
- the next twenty years of the United Kingdom
- the emerging thinking and track record of Gordon Brown
- Britishness and how this informs government policy
Gerry is also commissioning and editing a special issue of the ideas journal Renewal on arts and culture, covering such subjects as how do we speak about the arts, the meaning of creativity and innovation, a critique of Richard Florida, and the rise and fall of cultural Britishness.
Gerry has headed up two aclaimed Demos programmes - Scotland 2020 and Glasgow 2020. Glasgow 2020 was a 'mass imagination' project - which used the idea of the stories people tell to examine different futures – and what was also a ‘futures literacy’ project – addressing how we can democratise the future and involve as many people as possible in shaping and deciding the future.
Gerry runs a twice yearly weekend at The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool called Changin' Scotland - which aims to bring together organisations and individuals for constructive dialogue, music and film that nurtures change - and the idea of having a good time (the next one: March 14th-16th 2008).
Gerry works with a range of artists and cultural practioners on ideas of how the arts can inform policy. Recently he worked with Suspect Culture on their revue ‘Futurology’ and has been a key contributor to numerous bodies including the Centre for Confidence and Well-Being and the Scottish Parliament’s Futures Forum. Gerry has also supported ideas and discussion via commissioning, publishing and publicising a range of authors – notably;
- 'The Scots’ Crisis of Confidence' by Carol Craig
- a new edition of 'The Break-Up of Britain' by Tom Nairn
- a critique of the knowledge economy by Paul Thompson.
He is a regular commentator in the Scottish and UK media, speaker at events in Scotland, UK and internationally, an Associate Editor of the journal Renewal and an Honorary Research Fellow at Glasgow Caledonian University.
A graduate of Edinburgh University, Jim came to the arts via an earlier career in community education. He established the award winning WHALE project (Wester Hailes Arts for Leisure and Education) in Edinburgh, a role that included direct involvement in youth theatre as well as the development of a venue during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
In June 1998, he was appointed to the post of Combined Arts Director at the Scottish Arts Council. He became Director of Arts in January 2003 and since March 2007 has been Acting Chief Executive.
Miles is an independent meeting facilitator and organisation development consultant. He has particular expertise and experience in the cultural sector in managing change, board development, leadership and governance.
He previously worked for the leadership development organisation Common Purpose as Programme Director between 2002 and 2006 where he opened and developed the new Mid Scotland office. He moved to Scotland in the summer of 1998 and began work for the Scottish Arts Council as Senior Development Officer (National Lottery). In April 2000 he became the manager of the SAC Lottery funded Advancement Programme - a scheme to help organisations achieve lasting positive change.
Previously Miles was Head of Arts Business Services at Yorkshire Arts Board where his work included all areas of management and marketing development for those who work in the arts. Other positions have include working with a commercial tour operator, business advisor in Liverpool for 4 years, a Marketing Manager for the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff & Theatre Clwyd in Mold and Director of the Arts Business Centre at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside. Miles has run many training courses in business planning, management and marketing.
He is currently the Vice Chair of the Macrobert Arts Centre Committee.
Paul Harris graduated in Photography from Birmingham College of Art & Design in 1980. He subsequently worked in broadcast television as a documentary editor for a Channel 4 & S4C independent, and as a lighting cameraman for the BBC and Central Television.
He later became a freelance director and independent producer for a range of broadcast and large corporate clients. Since 1994 Paul has taught film, television and digital media production in a number of Scottish institutions, specialising in writing for media, narrative development, cinematography and visual language.
He has delivered a number of consultancies into the Scottish Computer Games industry, aimed at: enhancing writing for interactive narrative; improving cinematography skills for animators and environmental modellers; lighting design for enhancing dramatic effect; and working as a director of cinematography on the children’s game, Brave.
Paul’s current focus is on enhancing the viability and sustainability of the Scottish interactive industries, by establishing the Whitespace resource, aimed at supporting sector businesses and the associated freelance workforce in gaining new skills, diversifying their markets, and collaborating on major joint projects.
Paul has won many Scottish Students on Screen Awards, several International Visual Communication Association Awards, two Royal Television Society Awards, a BAFTA Scotland for best new documentary talent, and a British Academy Award for best short film
He has been a member of Skillset’s United Kingdom Tertiary Education Forum for the audio-visual industries, and has served on BBC Scotland’s Music, Arts & Entertainment, Independent Review Panel.
Until recently Paul was Chairman of the Angus Digital Media Centre (ADMC), Chair of the Project Advisory Board of the Scottish Executive’s Future Learning and Teaching funded Moving Image Education project, a Board Member of Scottish Screen, and Chairman of the Scottish Screen Investment Panel. He is co-founder of Bridging the Gap, a digital-cinema documentary production scheme, and is a Governor of the Patrick Allan-Fraser of Hospitalfield Trust. He was recently appointed to the Board of Scottish Enterprise Tayside.
Rhona is a theatre producer dedicated to working in the children’s theatre sector in Scotland for nearly 6 years. After working on the Wee Stories Early Years project, Rhona developed an interest in work for young audiences and is the Project Manager for Starcatchers, the first project in Scotland dedicated to the development of theatre for children aged 0-3 and their parents or carers.
In addition, Rhona produced Heather Fulton’s production of Moussa’s Castle which toured Scotland in 2007, including performances at The Bank of Scotland Children’s International Theatre Festival and will tour England in 2008. She is also working with Puppet State Theatre to develop touring programmes for their acclaimed production of The Man Who Planted Trees.
Jo is a promoter and producer specialising in theatre for the very young. Based in London, she has worked part-time at Polka Theatre and is now the Associate Producer for Early Years.
In 2006, Polka became a partner within Small Size, a European network cultivating the performing arts within early childhood and extending the exchange of skills, knowledge and practice within this field.
In her freelance capacity, she is an early years theatre and arts consultant and is a member of the Starcatchers steering group.
Tony joined Imaginate in 1996 after working in various capacities with a range of Scottish theatre organisations, including 7:84, TAG, Pen Name, Rain Dog and Visible Fictions.
Originally the Scottish International Children’s Festival, Imaginate is a year-round organisation, with a range of initiatives and events aimed at promoting and developing performing arts for children in Scotland.
Imaginate’s vision is that all children in Scotland, by the age of twelve, will have had a positive experience of performing arts.
Tony is passionate about the arts playing a central role in stimulating the education and creativity of children and young people.
Sarah is currently CEO/Artistic Director of Collective and will take up a new position as head of Tramway in April 08. She has brought numerous international artists to Scotland for the first time as well as given many Scottish based artists their first major solo show including
- Matt Stokes
- Mike Nelson,
- Wael Shawky and
- Arthur Zmijewski.
Her initiatives include New Work Scotland, Offsite 2004 and the One Mile Programme.
Graham Leicester is Director of the International Futures Forum (IFF). IFF seeks out difficult, complex, seemingly intractable issues and works to support businesses, governments and communities in addressing them more effectively. Project work focuses on the areas of health, learning, enterprise and governance and examples include
- the long term management of radioactive waste
- tackling energy security and climate change
- urban regeneration
- the psychologically healthy corporation
- the ecology of the arts and
- learning in all its guises – including policy learning.
IFF was established in 2001 with a generous grant from BP. Its signature publication is Ten Things to do in a Conceptual Emergency.
Graham previously ran Scotland’s leading think tank, the Scottish Council Foundation, founded in 1997. From 1984-1995 he served as a diplomat in HM Diplomatic Service, specialising in China (he speaks Mandarin Chinese) and the EU. Between 1995 and 1997 he was senior research fellow with the Constitution Unit at University College London. He has also worked as a freelance professional cellist, including with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Kate is an independent consultant who advises artists and organisations across the contemporary performing arts. After working as a general manager in contemporary dance and at the London International Festival of Theatre, she became a consultant in the mid 1990s, and combines strategic consultancy and advice giving with periods of direct responsibility for running organisations or projects. She has worked with Arts Council England, helping to develop policy, running grant programmes and working as Head of Theatre at Arts Council London during 2004. ‘The Producers – alchemists of the Impossible’, which came out in 2007, was Kate’s first book, jointly commissioned and published by Arts Council England and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
Helen Marriage
Helen is a co-director of Artichoke which she founded with Nicky Webb in 2002. Artichoke is one of the country’s leading independent production companies, recently responsible for the presentation of Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant on the streets of central London. Previous work has included a seven year period as Director of the Salisbury Festival which she transformed from a local affair to what The Times described as a ‘miracle of modern British culture’. Helen came to Salisbury after creating the first Arts & Events programme for the developers of Canary Wharf in London. Prior to that she was an Associate Director of the London International Festival of Theatre. She began her working life with the inspirational Judith Knight at Artsadmin where she worked, managing a variety of independent artists in the early 1980s.
Alex Smoke is a new breed of electronic music producer. His music may reside on the dancefloor along with his renowned live sets, but it also resonates so much further; with a production style drawn from a myriad of influences that blur the boundaries between electronica, techno, classical and hip hop.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Alex's proficiency in multi-faceted electronic-beat-making is founded securely on a lifetime of classical training, nurtured not least by his mother, by profession a music teacher. At a young age, Alex received a coveted scholarship for Durham Cathedral Choir School, where he excelled on the cello, piano and drums. After a brief glitch, studying marine biology, Alex soon got back on track, wisely using his student loan to buy his first apple mac computer and simple software, giving his imagination the necessary tools to begin producing.
It didn't take long. after his first release in 2002 on local Glasgow label "s.u.d.", Alex was soon snapped up by the legendary dance music label, soma records, on which he released his seminal first album, "incommunicado" to critical acclaim in 2004. This deeply emotive release utilized cutting edge production techniques to give birth to a beguiling new style, which was lauded throughout the house and techno community. Upcoming Berlin indie label Vakant immediately recognized this young producer's talent and provided a platform for a series of ep releases that continued to tantalize enthusiasts not only within the techno-driven German capital, until the keenly anticipated arrival in 2006 of album no. 2, "paradolia", back on Soma.
Throughout his relatively short career Alex has become an in-demand remixer, already with remixes for steve reich, depeche mode, mylo, junior boys, funk d’void, radio 4, jay haze and envoy under his discography belt, to mention but a few.
2008 will witness Smoke's third studio album and the development of his live set to include more hardware equipment and thereby expand his boundaries and resonance even further.
Paul founded Boilerhouse in 1992 and has produced, written and directed productions that have take place in a range of extraordinary locations both local and international, ranging from a Pacific oceanfront to the Formula 1 circuit in Monaco and include the largest single ever aduience for a Scottish theatre company. Paul has inspired large and diverse teams in the pursuit of a common goal; these have included collaborations with designers, choreographers, composers, aerialists, car mechanics, pyro-technicians, and video artists.
Paul served on The Scottish Arts Council's Drama Committee for 5 years as well as sitting on the working party for The National Theatre of Scotland. In addition he was a Board Member for The Independent Theatre Council - the industry lead body in the UK for all professional theatre companies - and a member of the Steering Committee for Scottish ITC.
Graduate of the twinned universities of Caen and Portsmouth with a Degree in Economic Sciences and of University of Rouen with a Masters in Conception and Implementation of Cultural Projects. Graduate in Jazz and Classical music of the Regional Academy of Caen and Chichester College of Art Science and Technology.
Began professional activity in the Street Arts field in 2000, working on the reception of the professionals during the festival “Viva Cité” and then work experience of two and a half months within the team of Zap Production (currently Zap'Art) in Brighton.
Atelier 231 since September 2002, as Administrator and Responsible for the European Projects (IN SITU/Culture 2000 and PECA/Interreg) in link with the Director Daniel Andrieu.
Since 2002, participation in the debates and working sessions on Street Arts Development in England, each year at the "National Street Arts Meeting" in Brighton. Also during other seminars such as those held in Hastings during the festival Coastal Current in the Streets in 2004 and 2005: "The Virtual Creation Center - How to make it a reality?" or “Professional Development of Street Artists within the PECA partnership – Developing a Model for Good Practice and Strategy for the Future”.
A graduate of Edinburgh University with an MA in psychology, Morag initially trained as a Careers Officer working in schools and colleges around West Edinburgh before being appointed as a lecturer in Careers Guidance at the University of Paisley.
After five years and gaining a MSc in HR from Strathclyde University, she worked in the Scottish Enterprise network before returning to Paisley University. There she worked initially as a project manager, developing and researching access to higher education for disadvantaged groups and then as Director of Continuing Education at the university’s Ayr campus.
After a period of restructuring at Paisley she was promoted to the role of Director of Corporate Communication. After gaining a post graduate qualification in Marketing, Morag was appointed in 1999 as Director of Marketing at Napier University.
Morag joined the Scottish Arts Council in January 2005 where she is Director of Planning and Communications.
Tom Shakespeare trained as a sociologist. In addition to an international reputation for speaking and writing in the fields of disability and bioethics, he has experience in stand-up comedy, live art, theatre and dance. From 1999-2003, he commissioned and curated sci-art projects for Newcastle's PEALS Institute. Since 2003 he has had a NESTA Fellowship to develop his own creative work: he is currently in the last stages of a life writing project, ‘No Small Inheritance’. Tom is chair of Arts Council North East and a member of Arts Council England.