Artists working with galleries and their audiences
Speaker Biographies (in presentation order)
Johnny Gailey
Johnny Gailey has worked in community arts and gallery education in Scotland since 2000. He was the Education Officer at An Tuireann Arts Centre on the Isle of Skye, before moving to Edinburgh to develop a participatory public art project at North Edinburgh Arts Centre. Since March 2005, he has run The Fruitmarket Gallery’s programme of activities for children and young people, Opt in for Art.
In addition to the ongoing programme at The Fruitmarket Gallery, in 2007/2008, Johnny co-ordinated a national podcasting project, DownloadLowdown, for Young Scot which worked with 30 groups of young people across Scotland. The podcasts are currently being released via iTunes.
Robin Baillie
Robin studied Politics and Modern History at the University of Edinburgh and Fine Art (PG) at the Slade School of Art, UCL.
Since 2001 Robin has been the Senior Outreach Officer in the Education Department managing the Outreach team at the National Galleries of Scotland.
Robin lectured in contextual studies Edinburgh College of Art from 1995 – 2000 and still teaches part-time at the University of Edinburgh in the History of Art department.
He was Education Officer (Lifelong Learning) at the National Museums of Scotland from 2000 - 2001. He is a practising artist and sound poet, and has interests in Surrealism, modernist conceptions of the artist, theories of the city, photography and popular culture.
Richie Cumming
Richie graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2002 with a BA Hons degree in Fine Art. Since then he has worked in a pea factory, as
a barman, a family support worker and as a freelance artist with a wide range of youth and community groups in Dundee, Edinburgh and London.
Following his role as Education Co-ordinator at Dundee Contemporary Arts from 2004-2008, Richie moved to Edinburgh to take up the post of Outreach officer at The National Galleries of Scotland.
A practising artist, part time DJ and promoter of the ‘Scribble’ club night, Richie is currently working on a series of prints for Designs for Life, a group exhibition in Vilnius, Lithuania and developing the education project/exhibition, Rough Cut Nation, a collaboration between ten (street) artists, remixing Scottish History and painting it directly onto the walls of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Craig MacLean
Since graduating from Glasgow College of Building and Printing in June 1992 with an HND in Photography and Visual Media Studies, Craig has been working as a freelance photographer. During this time he has worked with a number of community groups and has been involved in organising and tutoring many arts projects, catering for the widest range abilities and needs.
Craig enjoys working with groups and using photography as an expressive and creative medium to explore issues and concerns which affected their lives on a local and, at times, global level. The emphasis of Craig’s work is on both process and product, with the main aim to connect with local people, which is something he is particularly interested in.
Maria Harper
Since 2005Maria has been instrumental in shaping and realising both the Re:Create and Ricochet programmes, and was recently appointed Stills’ Engagement Manager, leading a year-long process of research, consultation and pilot projects to create a new business strategy for Stills’ engagement work.
Since graduating in Argentina Maria has worked as a journalist for local authorities, art centres, periodicals and artists’ collectives writing about the arts. She later relocated to Spain where she gained a Masters in Communication and Arts while developing her skills as a photographer.
Since arriving in Scotland in 2004, Maria has worked for Stills and Ankur Artsdevising innovative participative artist-led and audience development projects.
In her spare time Maria is trying to keep up with her photography, drawings and collage practice.
Caroline Douglas
In the last few years Caroline’s photography has concentrated on the sociological aspects of identity construction and social relations using portraiture as a vehicle to explore the human condition, memory and personal experience. Incorporating social agendas within her practice, Caroline engages audiences and fosters a platform where prejudgments can be challenged.
Caroline is currently studying for a Masters of Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art focusing on socially-engaged practice. During her Re:Create 2 residency, she worked with a variety of groups at Stills to explore possibilities within photography.
Caroline has become a key member of Stills’ artistic community inspiring people to explore their creativity through photography; she has been appointed as a lead artist of the Revealed project, which seeks to introduce innovative photographic techniques to visually impaired people. She is currently preparing to launch Find a Place, a project that represents the changing nature of Scottish Identity.
Janie Nicoll
Janie Nicoll is a visual artist based in Glasgow, who originally trained in Painting at Edinburgh College of Art and graduated from the Master of Fine Art course at Glasgow School of Art in 1997. She has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, most recently in the Park Gallery, Falkirk; Magazine 07, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop; the Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh; Intermedia Gallery, CCA, Glasgow; the Deviant Arts Festival, Trollhättan, Sweden; Red Wire Gallery, Liverpool; Generator Projects, Dundee; Chapter Gallery, Cardiff; Lowsalt Gallery and EmergeD VSF Gallery, Glasgow; The Waygood Gallery, Newcastle; The Changing Room, Stirling; the Crawford Gallery, Cork and the Künstlerhaus,
Dortmund, Germany amongst others. Her video works have been shown internationally including the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
She has just completed a year-long Scottish Arts Council pARTners residency in Digital Media at Callendar House, Falkirk. Previous residencies have been at Self Help Graphics, Los Angeles, USA; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Neonatal Unit; Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Kids, Glasgow; Chatelherault Country Park, Hamilton; Shining Cliff International Residency for My House Projects, Nottingham; and Generator Projects, Dundee.
She has collaborated with fellow artist Alex Hetherington on a number of performances and curatorial projects including The Consequence video screenings at Lowsalt Gallery, Glasgow, and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop; ‘Deception/Reception’ at Bier Halle Republic, Glasgow; ‘House Lights’ at ESW; the TWINS Calendar Project; “High Rise Cinema” an outdoor video screening; and music and performance events for Big In Falkirk.
She has regularly written articles for a-n magazine including exhibitions by Karla Black at Mary Mary; Mark Neville at StreetLevel Photoworks and Renfrew Street Social Club at Lowsalt Gallery.
Alex Hetherington
Alex Hetherington is a performance-based visual artist and writer:recent projects include The Colony Room, New Langton Arts and Skank BlocBologna, TART, both San Francisco, USA; HOUSE/LIGHTS at Live ArtFalmouth, UK; the film UNTITLED (SEXYBACK, FOLEY ARTIST) at File 2008,Sao Paulo; the group shows and performance projects: Meddle with theDevil, House/Lights and Mineral Park, at The Park Gallery, Falkirk, UK;the publication project FOOL'S GOLD, Editions 1 and 2, including ascreening of his film and performance work FALKIRK VOODOO, KING KENNYWITH EMAIL SCAM (2008)at The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; FlitMagazine, Oregon, USA; and a performance work in progress at the TronTheatre, Glasgow, with Stellar Quines and Sally Hobson.
He writes forAN, Interface and Map magazines in the UK and Shotgun and Stretcher, inSan Francisco, USA.
Forthcoming projects include visual art workshops for thegroup show The Enlightenments, Edinburgh International Festival, August2009 and a workshop project with the performance artist Franko B, March2009 at Tramway, Glasgow, UK. He is a 2008-09 recipient of an Alt-WAward, New Media Scotland, a Glasgow Visual Arts award, 2009 and aCreative Lab project at the CCA, Glasgow, April 2009. He divides histime between Scotland and Northern California.
Lou McLoughlan’s film of the Parallel Lives project will be shown at lunchtime. Lou and Kevin Reid will take part in the discussion sessions in the afternoon
Lou McLoughlan
Beanland was set up by two documentary makers in Edinburgh, Lou McLoughlan and Heather Taylor, in 2000 to stem the vomitous flow of banal drivel that was being fed to public bodies as "video". We questioned why so much interesting work, funded by the taxpayer, for the taxpayer, was being dumbed-down with "corporate" film making techniques. So we resolved to use engaging documentary techniques to do justice to exciting public projects.
Being well aware of the power of film to gain more funding and attention we wanted to use our skills to support projects with a social benefit. Fortunately for us, we could take advantage ofviewers’ intelligent, enquiring minds to do this. Being highly television-literate, they expect well-crafted films and tolerate little else. That meant that, as long as we kept our audiences stimulated, amused and entertained we could make films that got a strong message across. This was a message of positive social change, of good people doing good things within their communities - proven and celebrated in film.
So, as well as avoiding formulaic "corporate" film making techniques, we aim to make films that give genuine insight into projects. It keeps the films relevant, us interested, and the projects funded.
We have worked with Communities Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the National Galleries of Scotland, The National Lottery and numerous socialentrepreneurs and enjoy many ongoing relationships with the inspiring
people we have beenprivilegedto have met and worked with while making their films.
Kevin Reid
My practice is multi disciplinary and has always been about taking what I do out of the gallery and into the public realm then dragging the results back in again.
I draw on locality, storytelling and colloquialism for inspiration and look to the everyday for themes.
I am interested in the collection of narrative re-threading this and exploring the abstract use of story within film and performance.
Collaboration plays an integral part in my practice and often the fruition of projects I undertake would be impossible without me instigating working networks.
I often work under singular or collective pseudonym from the flamboyant bravado fuelled antics of Harry Butler Stuntman Extraordinaire to group strength of GANGHUT a super installation group I instigated in 2004.
My work includes notions of remembrance, machismo and childhood, gang mentality, utopian ideology and the psychology of social structures and friendship.
I have worked with communities and groups on various projects over the past 6 years including the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow looking at issues of domestic violence with women.
At the social services in Dundee with young offenders, on Fife Councils MAC bus and with women from Muirhouse and surrounding areas with the National Galleries of Scotland on the ‘Parallel Lives 2’ last year.
Currently I am working on fantasy film with Graeme Roger to be shot in late summer around the highlands and islands.
And GANGHUT has also built and opened a new artist project space within the grounds of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Lumsden, which will be hosting a variety of residencies of the next year.
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