Fife Contemporary Art & Craft annual report 2016 17

Fife Contemporary Art & Craft

Annual Report 2016-17 /fifecontemp @fifecontemp @fifecontemp

Support to artists A change this year was in the way the annual artist CPD was delivered, changing from an annual, one day event, to several shorter ones CPD events for artists 4 events were organised - Writing Artist’s Statement/Project Proposal workshop with Geoff Barker; 2 Active Listening sessions with Louise Ritchie; 1 symposium (Thinking, Making + Matter) as part of Jasleen’s Kaur’s exhibition. These were attended by 62 people.

Newsflashes 42 newsflashes were sent out to a mailing list which grew to 687 recipients by the end of March 2016; average open rate was 39.5% & click rate 12.2%, well above the industry averages of 15.2% & 1.9% respectively. (Due to staff illness, newsflashes went out every 2 weeks instead of weekly from Sept-Mar 2016/17) Artists’ Grants A total of 8 artists’ Project Grants were made and 2 Development Programme awards.

These were co-funded by Creative Scotland, Fife Council & Fife Cultural Trust, and administered by FCA&C with Fife Cultural Trust.

General advice FCA&C was contacted by 42 artists from Fife and beyond for advice on a wide variety of artistic matters.

“Excellent choice of venue! Very well organised; day was not over-filled with talks yet lots of food for thought: quality over quantity put into practice beautifully.”

Attender at Thinking, Making & Matter symposium

Exhibitions & Projects FCA&C organised 5 exhibitions plus 2 which toured to 2 Scottish venues, visited by 14,651 people

Shelters FCA&C’s Festival of Architecture exhibition ran in Kirkcaldy Galleries until June 2016. It was seen by 6,325. It also toured to Paisley Museum & Art Gallery where it was viewed by 795.

Stills/Luminate Festival 2016 For the first time, FCA&C participated in the Luminate Festival of Ageing & hosted a display of banners in St Andrews Town Hall for a week. They were seen by 85.

Robert Callender A2B Following its successful time at the Scottish Fisheries Museum, Anstruther, A2B toured to Lochgelly Centre at the end of 2016. It was seen by 1,540.

Jasleen Kaur The first solo show of London-based Indian Scottish artist, Jasleen Kaur, took place in St Andrews Museum and was viewed by 1,409.

Robin Gillanders & Henry Gough-Cooper StAnza 2017’s exhibition featured photographs by Robin Gillanders in response to poetry

by Henry Gough-Cooper. It was held in St Andrews Town Hall & seen by 1,267 people.

Limomolum - Jeremy Hutchison Jeremy Hutchison’s exhibition, investigating the linoleum industry in Kirkcaldy, opened at Kirkcaldy Galleries in March 2017 & was seen by 1,780 visitors to end March 2017.

“Was there last week and loved it! Makes me want to go out and build a ‘camp’ like I was 10 again!” Visitor to Shelters, via Instagram

treat & Craft Development Following re-evaluation of FCA&C’s craft development in 2016, a new series of craft initiatives will come on stream during 2017-18. treat Store’s online collection The final treat Store collection featuring work by 14 Scottish makers ran online until the end of October 2016.

Craft Pods’ Tours 2016-17 The Craft Pods toured to 4 Fife libraries with silver & iron spoons by Grant McCaig. For the first time, they also toured to 2 Fife secondary schools (Woodmill HS, Dunfermline, and Madras College, St Andrews). Also for the first time, 2 workshops led by Grant McCaig were held for senior Woodmill HS pupils as part of Craft Scotland’s Meet Your Maker initiative. The first destination for the next Craft Pods’ tour (work by Jasleen Kaur) was Dalgety Bay library in March 2017 - it will continue to run during 2017. In total, the pods were seen by 15,375 visitors.

FCA&C’s involvement with Crafts Council’s Hothouse scheme for makers FCA&C was again involved with the Scottish cohort for this national scheme, including assisting at 2 training days held in FireStation Creative, Dunfermline.

“As the Craft Pods were being installed several non-art staff took interest, and the PTC Science was particularly praising of you bringing work to schools rather than the chore/headache of what we must get involved in to get pupils out on visits. ” Craft Pods’ Tours 2016-17 (work by Grant McCaig) at Woodmill HS, Dunfermline

Participatory & educational events

15 participatory/educational projects & events, involving 440 people

Shelters’ drop-in workshop, led by Charlotte Duffy at Kirkcaldy Galleries This drop-in cardboard den-building workshop was atttended by 37 children (& adults!).

Shelters’ talks - 5 in total 2 lunchtime talks given by the Director; Lloyd Kahn was brought over by FCA&C from USA & gave talks on Eigg & a sell-out talk in Kirkcaldy; the Director gave a talk to Artlink’s Curious Routes group from Edinburgh. Total attendance was 210.

Craft Pods’ Grant McCaig workshops (Craft Scotland - Meet Your Maker), Woodmill HS 2 workshops were led by Grant McCaig for 40 senior pupils (& 1 teacher).

Head Start Summer School The 4th summer school (for senior Fife pupils hoping to go to art school) was held for the first time at Cambo Estate. It was attended by 15 pupils from 12 schools, 4 artists & 1 student intern. Supported by Barns-Graham Trust & Cookie Matheson Charitable Trust.

Artist residency for new Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries Film-maker Rob Page worked with 5 pupils (& 2 members of museum staff) from Woodmill High School on a digital/film project to be used in the new museum’s display.

Jasleen Kaur ‘bodging’ workshop Artist Jasleen Kaur led a ‘bodging’ workshop at St Andrews Museum, attended by 7.

Talks about FCA&C The Director gave talks about FCA&C’s work to Friends of Kirkcaldy Galleries & Touring Exhibition Group in Bradford. Attended by 77.

StAnza 2017 Meet the Artist Robin Gillanders & Henry Gough-Cooper took part in this event, attended by 10 people.

Limomolum artist talk & guided tour Artist Jeremy Hutchison gave a talk at the opening of his Limomolum exhibition in Kirkcaldy Galleries, & James Inglis gave a guided tour. Attended by 31.

Information Services & Digital Digital resources have continued to be an important tool for communicating with FCA&C’s audiences.

Website The website continued to be used well, with paid bookings now being taken for talks & workshops - 24,927 visits.

Email Marketing Email marketing was sent out via Newsflashes to artists, monthly Programme News, & regular treat mailings (until October 2016). The total number of new sign-ups was 182.

Social Media Social media continued to be used regularly as a communication tool & growth was seen across all channels - Facebook 1,804 likes/1,765 followers (approx total annual reach is 68,106, with some 4,288 actions); Twitter 1,436 (with approx 81,177 impressions annually & 3,531 actions). Instagram has now 724 followers & analytics were set up to record usage from March 2017.

St Andrews Town Hall arts board In between the occasional project display, the space continues to be a useful noticeboard for local & national arts news.

“Some great A-I-R opportunities with @fifecontemp, fair chuffed to get my applications submitted! ” Newsflash recipient via Twitter

FCA&C Staff Team Diana Sykes (Director) Devises programme, fundraising, liaision with outside organisations Susan Davis (Programme Manager) Administers programme, artists’newsflashes / mailing list, website, design, press/social media Arlene Keddie (Administrator) Finance, general mailing lists, office management Stefanie Cheong (Craft Development Officer) Develops & manages craft development Find us at FCA&C Town Hall, Queen’s Gardens St Andrews, KY16 9TA T 01334 474610 /F 01334 749880 E mail@fcac.co.uk / www.fcac.co.uk Usual office hours: Mon-Frid 9.30am-5pm Photos: Johnny Barrington, Stefanie Cheong, Alan Dimmick, Ann Gunn, Marion Smith, Diana Sykes, Michael Wolchover

Looking forward Following a successful decade of activity across Fife and beyond, under an unwieldy if descriptive name, FCA&C has decided to re-brand to the short but hopefully memorable ‘Fife Contemporary’! 2017 will see the introduction of a new visual identity which we hope will communicate our vitality and sense of humour.

Coming Up....

- Kate Scardifield: an exhibition by an Australian artist following her 2016 research visit to Scottish archives including Fife’s museum collections.

- Container Project: a pilot offsite project at Cupar Industrial estate looking at craft past and present in collaboration with Fife Folk Museum and Silo Projects.

- Fife Pride: work with Fife LGBTI+ youth groups to make work for a new celebration.