Saltire Society unveils 80th anniversary programme
A £50,000 ‘Inspiring Scotland’ funding programme for emerging Scottish talent and Scotland’s first ever online literary festival are just two of the eye-catching initiatives revealed today as part of a busy programme of activities to mark the Saltire Society’s 80th anniversary year.
At a launch event hosted at the Dundee Contemporary Arts, the Saltire Society unveiled a packed eight month schedule of events, lectures, discussions and awards including partnerships with the British Council Scotland, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Glasgow Women’s Library and Hands up for Trad.
The programme will include a wide array of prominent contributors including Scottish composer Professor Sir James MacMillan, writer and broadcaster Kirsty Wark, novelist Michel Faber, writer and journalist David Robinson, and entrepreneur Chris Van der Kuyl who popularised the bestselling computer game Minecraft.
Included as a key part of the anniversary schedule is the £50,000 Inspiring Scotland programme, which will invest in ideas and innovation to help nurture and develop the next generation of Scottish creative talent. It will include international travel placements for students across a range of creative disciplines as well as the opportunity for one emerging artist to spend three months in New York City following in the footsteps of renowned Scottish artist Steven Campbell.
Scotland’s first ever online literary festival will take place in June and will include a programme bursting with web events and giving readers the chance to engage with some of their favourite writers including Michel Faber, Ryan van Winkle and Kirsty Logan to name just three. Also announced were a series of lectures on Art, Science, and Public Life and discussions between academics on some of the biggest issues facing Scottish society and culture today.
Meanwhile, a bumper package of awards will include the second annual Outstanding Women of Scotland Awards, the Housing Design Awards with a judging panel chaired by Kirsty Wark and featuring a special ‘Test of Time’ discussion, the 2016 Saltire Literary Awards, now well established as Scotland’s leading annual book awards, the Civil Engineering Awards which have celebrated excellence in innovation and design for over 30 years, the Art in Public Places Awards and the Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun Awards, which seek to recognise outstanding contributions to Scottish society across many different walks of life.
Finally, over the course of the next few months the critically acclaimed film Dummy Jim will be screened at all Saltire Society branches across Scotland, from Inverness to Dumfries and from Helensburgh to Aberdeen. The film is an adaptation of the first-hand account of profoundly deaf Scot James Duthie’s 3,000 mile journey from northern Scotland to the far north of Scandinavia.
Carol Campbell is Steven Campbell’s late wife and founder of The Steven Campbell Trust, which will support a three month placement in New York for one Scottish artist as part of the £50,000 Inspiring Scotland programme.
She commented: “We have always held dear to our aim of one day being able to support a scholarship programme based in New York for a practising artist. There can be few other cities where becoming an overnight success is not some idle daydream but can, with hard work, be achievable. In Steven’s case we finally hit success after a year spent visiting every opening exhibition in our Soho neighbourhood and painting every day in his studio at the Pratt Institute when the Barbara Toll Gallery agreed to take 3 canvases for a summer exhibition.
“This led to a review by John Russell for the New York Times and literally the day following the review saw all the paintings sold, a waiting list and a one man show scheduled. Now that’s the kind of dream we want to help facilitate.
“We are delighted to be able to announce that this programme is now a reality and that criterion for applications will be released shortly. Steven would have been immensely proud to know that his name and influence still resounds today.”
Scottish composer Professor Sir James MacMillan will contribute a special lecture to the Saltire Society’s 80th anniversary programme in May.
Professor MacMillan said: “I am delighted to have been invited to contribute to the Saltire Society’s 80th anniversary celebrations. It is important, in the present climate, that Scottish advocates of the arts continue to support and celebrate an excellence that has international reach. Scotland, now more than ever, needs to hear a wide range of perspectives rather than a narrow orthodoxy. The Saltire Society could be such a platform – just as important now as it was in 1936.”
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