We need your views - complete our survey

Applied Arts Scotland (AAS) was set up to give a voice to the professional needs of the crafts sector. AAS has a voluntary Board made up of professional makers living and working in Scotland. We are considering a variety of opportunities to develop and support the sector, including discussion forums, events, encouraging collaboration, and professional development activities such as intern and apprenticeships and the development of accredited standards.

To represent, develop and deliver on behalf of the professional makers in Scotland we need your views and invite you to take part in this short survey www.surveymonkey.com/s/AppliedArtsScotland.  

The survey closes on 23 June. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your input.

Applied Arts Scotland & Fife Cultural Trust training event

Convince Me. The Art of Making Compelling Applications

Kinghorn Station Studio & Gallery, Station Rd, KY3 9RA

5-8pm, 23rd June 2014

What does it take to make a great application? Come along and hear from makers who have done it themselves and can offer valuable insights and helpful tips.

This is a professional development event brought to you by Applied Arts Scotland in partnership with Fife Cultural Trust.

This free event is aimed at professional makers living or working in Fife who want to make successful applications for funding, exhibitions, residencies or other projects. We will hear from experienced artists working in ceramics, painting, printmaking and textiles- details below of the speakers. There will also be time for networking, and a chance to ask the speakers questions. 

Fiona Thompson is a ceramic artist based in Edinburgh, where she combines her practice with running Cyan Clayworks- a social enterprise and teaching facility. She is also Treasurer for Applied Arts Scotland. She will first talk briefly about AAS, and will then talk about her own experiences of making applications within the context of some of the projects she has been involved in. www.fionathompsonceramics.co.uk

Lynette Gray is an established artist and tutor, and runs the studio and gallery at Kinghorn Station. She specialises in painting and offers a variety of regular courses from the studio. During her presentation she will talk about how she combines her creative practice with running a successful gallery and teaching space. www.kinghorngallery.co.uk/

Claire Heminsley has been a practicing artist since the mid-1980s. Her work is diverse and crosses disciplines- with its basis in drawing, it includes textiles and printmaking. She will talk about a variety of her projects, and her experience of both making and receiving applications.www.incahoots.org.uk/index.html

How to book: please visit http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/convince-me-the-art-of-making-compelling-applications-tickets-10243680123?aff=es2&rank=1

Applied Arts Scotland and Craft Scotland training events

^{Your Brand And Online Selling}

What does your work mean to you and how do you present this to other people?- February 27^th

In telling your story a customer can form an important emotional connection with your work that transforms them from being a viewer into an engager and buyer. How can branding and social media help tell your story to an online audience? Isn’t part of the bond formed between the handmade product and the customer partly to do with the tangible connection formed by being able to fully experience the product and get to know the maker?

The first of our training events will aim to uncover how branding, social media and selling online can all work together in making your work more accessible and easier to experience online. Our team of industry professionals and makers will go through each of these topics in detail and hope to inform and educate makers on how best to sell online. What works and what doesn’t.

So come along to our event in Edinburgh on Thursday 27^th   and for just £25 you could be there to learn how to tell and sell your story.

Our Edinburgh event will be hosted by Will Levi Marshall, Artist, Designer, Collaborator and AAS Board Member.

and includes...

Giles Etherington - Owner and Creative Director of Brand Satellite, 

Jules Horne - copywriter at Texthouse, arts advocate at Creative Arts Business Network (CABN),

Marcus Wilson -Web guru extraordinaire for the creative and cultural sector, 

Alison Macleod - Glasgow based Jeweller,

Mark McConnel - Creative director and owner of home and gift label YOKE.

Magnus Orr - Co- founder of NY Tartan Week.

*Click on the logos above and below to go to straight to Eventbrite and book tickets

Your Brand and Social Media

Are you tweeting tastic or just a little chicken? – Inverness 13^th March

You’ve been in your studio all day. You send the occasional tweet out in to the ether and at most hope that some kind soul will get back to you to tell you your work is amazing. Is this social media? Is it really doing anything to enhance business or is it just an ego boost? It can feel indulgent to spend time tweeting, Facebooking and instagramming your work but what valuable input does it have to your business, if any?

This event will focus on the importance of social media in telling your story and selling your brand. Together with Craft Scotland and Emergents we have put together a fabulous line up of industry professionals and makers to come and talk to you about their experiences and share what social media has done for them and the growth of their business.

This half day training event will take place in Inverness on 13^th March and for just £15 you could be there. So don’t delay book it and tweet about it today!

Our Inverness event will be hosted by Patricia Niemann, Jeweller, Goldsmith, Designer and AAS Board Member.

and includes...

Melanie Muir -  Jeweller and PR and Marketing expert

Julia Ossenbruegge - Online Marketing Manager, Craft Scotland,

Hilary Grant – Orkney based Knitwear designer

For more information and booking forms for each of these events please visit the Craft Scotland website - .

There are limited numbers for each of these events so book now to avoid disappointment.

Hold the Date: Improve your branding, online sales and social media skills

Applied Arts Scotland and Craft Scotland are working in partnership to deliver training sessions on branding, online selling and social media to inspire makers to make the most of their brand and online presence. Two training events are currently being planned for February/March 2014. Both events will feature a selection of talks from enthusiastic makers and sessions with industry professionals working to support the sector.

The first of these events will be held in Edinburgh at Whitespace in association with Gayfield Creative Spaces on Thursday 27th February, our second event will take place in Inverness in association with Emergents on Thursday 13th March. We want to embrace digital technology in both of these events to provide online resources that can be accessed by makers across Scotland. Keep an eye out on our website for further announcements.

AAS anno 2013; a review and looking forward!

Last time this year, a call out was made for the new AAS Board members and some weeks later Bryony, Tom and myself sat down and selected the new Board, which was  appointed in January 2013. A lot has happened in what now seems like both a short time ago and a long year...

During the Spring and Summer, the AAS put on a Roadshow, in partnership with the Scottish Artists Union (SAU) and others in venues across Scotland. We were in Glasgow at the Lighthouse, the Big Cat Textile Centre in Newburgh, at the GoNorth event in Inverness, at Heart of Hawick with CABN, at Glenrothes with FCAC, at the SAU AGM in Edinburgh and coming up for our last event - delayed from October for various practical reasons - at the Stove in Dumfries on 21st January 2014. We had the chance to meet lots of makers and talk to you!

AAS has also been busy behind the scenes making connections and doing lots of talking. The results of these have been some exciting projects coming up;

AAS was successful in securing £5,000 AmbITion funding. The AmbITion fund was very much put together to invest and train the AAS Board in new digital technology and thus reduce need for face-to-face meetings as well as put an infrastructure in place to enable AAS to have a stronger and sustainable online presence and reach out to more people, in remote places. This will be happening in early 2014 and we will keep you posted on its development and what this might mean for you as a maker.

AAS has also been working on delivering some training events for makers on marketing/digital skills in partnership with Craft Scotland as we very much believe, whislt some excellent training is being delivered across Scotland, that this ought to be accessible for all so we are striving to making this accessible to all, at any time. The AmbITion funding will help us to work towards that.

The above partnership with Craft Scotland is the result of our ongoing dialogue with key partners in the craft sector. Craft Scotland have also formally offered AAS a place on the Craft Bench, which we are delighted about.

AAS has also been invited by Duncan of Jordanstone to be involved with the organisation of the Craft Festival Scotland 2014. This will be a nationwide week of events and exhibitions across Scotland. We are awaiting the outcome of the funding application. Fingers crossed!

AAS is still looking into the possibility of apprenticeships and attended the recent Building a Creative summit organised by CCSkills. We would like to develop this further but need have been busy with other projects so we hope we can develop, going into 2014 and beyond. AAS has already been talking to potential partners of how to develop this....

Not a mean achievement for a year's work of this Board! But, a few Board members are stepping down and we are looking for some new people to join the Board. So if you are keen to learn some new skills, make new connections, expand your network... get involved!

The current political climate in Scotland, with the funding directives from Creative Scotland, very much favour grass roots lead initiatives, in collaboration with key partners. The AAS charitable structure offers lots of advantages. 

So, if there any projects you are keen to get involved in, or would like to join the Board, please let us know at info@appliedartsscotland.org.uk.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the Board, may I wish you all a delightful festive season and a creative splendid 2014!

Inge

Chair

16/12/13

 

Roadshow: Inverness and Hawick coming up!

Next week our Board member jeweller and goldsmith Patty Niemann will speak at the third Roadshow venue at the GoNorth event, for which you can book here; only a few spaces left! It looks like an incredible line up of speakers and events, organised by Hi-Arts, as one of their last events.

On Tuesday we had our second Roadshow event. This time we received a very warm welcome at the delightful Big Cat Textile Centre. The centre is lead by the artist Jeanette Sendler who gave an inspiring talk about her work and how to lose your 'soul' when running a creative business. Kirsty Thomas from Lovely Pigeon  also spoke how she kept her focus on her design lead business and how she is managing her brand followed by a talk by Chair Inge Panneels and her diverse glass practice at idagos. This event was supported by the Fife Cultural Trust

The fourth event in the Roadshow will be held on Tuesday 18th June at Heart of Hawick. This networking event  will follow an afternoon workshop on 'Approaching Galleries and How to Cost Work' by Cultural Enterprise Office organised by CABN, for which you can book here: http://cabn.info/training-business-advice/approaching-galleries-and-pricing-work.html

AAS will host the networking event in the evening; another collaboration with the Scottish Artist Union with speaker artist Andrew Mackenzie, for which you can book here: http://networkingeventformakersandartists.eventbrite.co.uk. 

We hope to see you at one of these events. More dates to follow!

AAS Roadshow: The Craft of Making event at the Lighthouse with SAU

On Wednesday this week this week, we had our first Roadshow event; 'The Craft of Making' event which was held at the Lighthouse, with a talk packed with information by the  SAU and a delightful talk by Fi Scott from MakeWorks.

Following on the topics of the AAS talk; here are some links as promised;

1. Applied Arts Scotland is conducting a survey to gauge the need/demand for the development of a Craft apprenticeship; this is in dialogue with CCSkills and other partners. If you are interested in either taking on an apprenctice and want to know more, or be involved in a pilot scheme, or know of someone who is, it would be really useful to complete the survey and do get in touch;
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5L3LRWT

2. Applied Arts Scotland has set up a Scottish petition to show support for the sector in light of the recent DCMS changes; https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/department-of-culture-media-and-sport-dcms-stop-the-removal-of-craft-as-a-category

Meanwhile, if you would like to know more about our upcoming plans and membership scheme, please send us an email with 'I'm Interested" in the subject line to info@appliedartsscotland.org.uk (for spamming reasons there is no direct link to this email so please copy and paste; thanks).

We are of course also on the blogspot Applied Arts Scotland
on Twitter @AppliedArtsScot
and the non-profit organisation Facebook page AppliedArtsScotland

Thanks and keep in touch.

from the team of the day: Inge, Bryony and Emma

and the rest of the AAS team