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[ HI~ARTS ]

Visual Arts Marketing ProjectFinal Report

[ Marcus Wilson ]

[ Highlands & Islands Visual Arts Marketing Co-ordinator ]

[ July 2002 ]

[ Final Version ]

Section One: [ Introduction ] Part One: [ Project Background ]

Part Two: [ The Report ]

Section Two: [ Overview ] Part One: [ The Highlands & Islands ]

Part Two: [ Visual Arts Provision ]

Part Three: [ Visual Arts Market ]

Part Four: [ Arts Marketing Practices ]

Section Three: [ Audience Development - Not-for-Profit Sector ] Part One: [ Accessibility ] Part Five: [ Advocacy ]

Part Two: [ Programming ] Part Six: [ Retail & Catering ]

Part Three: [ Education ] Part Seven: [ Research & Monitoring ]

Part Four: [ The Marketing Mix ]

Section Four: [ Visual Arts Practitioners ] Part One: [ Sector Size & Characteristics ]

Part Two: [ Relationship with Public Galleries ]

Part Three: [ Support Mechanisms ]

Section Five: [ Sector Development ] Part One: [ Profile ]

Part Two: [ The Bigger Picture ]

Section Six: [ Executive Summary ] Part One: [ Conclusions ]

Part Two: [ Exit Strategy ]

Section Seven: [ Appendices ] Part One: [ Reference & Related Reading ]

Part Two: [ Credits ]

Front Cover Image: Photograph (Loch Glencoul, Sutherland) by Colin Simpson, with detail from

‘Ladhar Beinn’ painting by James Hawkins.

Inset: ‘Art.tm’ Interior (Inverness), ‘Taigh Chearsabhagh’ Exterior (North Uist)

C o n t e n t s

3[ Highlands & Islands Visual Arts Marketing ]

S e c t i o n O n e :

[ Introduction ]

This report is the outcome of a two year Visual Arts Marketing Project

conducted throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland between

July 2000 and July 2002.

The project was supported by the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund,

Highlands and Islands Enterprise and HI~Arts.


[ Section 1- Introduction ]

Part One: [ Project Background ]

The Visual Arts Marketing Project was conceived in 1999 by the Highlands and Islands

Visual Arts Consortium – a group representing each of the visual arts centres across the

region in receipt of Scottish Arts Council funding. At meetings of this consortium,

facilitated by HI~Arts, participants discussed the shared challenges of visual arts

development in a Highlands and Islands context, and explored cross-sector, collaborative

initiatives to address these challenges.

Through these meetings, it was decided that marketing practices had been under-resourced

and under-developed within consortium organisations, and more generally across the visual

arts sector of the region. This was felt to have an impact on:

• awareness of visual arts facilities in their immediate communities

• wider recognition (generating national press coverage and attracting visiting audiences)

• levels of sales (both for commercial and not-for-profit facilities)

As a result, marketing was adopted as a developmental priority for the consortium, and an

ambitious and cooperative approach to marketing development was initiated. It was

decided that an arts marketing expert should be appointed to give practical help and advice

on the establishment and implementation of marketing strategies for each consortium

member, whilst responding to these broader marketing challenges.

To ensure that these strategies would be relevant to the distinctive communities in which

each consortium organisation worked, it was agreed that a peripatetic post holder should

work within each organisation for a period of two to three months, in a series of

residencies. The post holder would perform local market research, analyse marketing

practices, deliver marketing training to staff, and prepare marketing plans which could then

be implemented by each host organisation. In a broader sense, the post holder would act as

an advocate for good marketing practice across the visual arts sector, also providing advice

for individual practitioners, commercial galleries and private artists’ studios, and develop

more practical cross-sector promotional initiatives.

In July 2000, a Visual Arts Marketing Coordinator for the region was appointed who, over

the next two years, undertook nine residencies at visual arts centres across the Highlands

and Islands, from the Shetland Isles in the north to the Isle of Mull in the south.



PPaarrttiicciippaattiinngg OOrrggaanniissaattiioonnss

The nine organisations participating directly in marketing residencies were art.tm

(Inverness), Pier Arts Centre (Stromness, Orkney Isles), An Tobar (Tobermory, Isle of

Mull), An Tuireann Arts Centre (Portree, Isle of Skye), Taigh Chearsabhagh (Lochmaddy,

Isle of North Uist), An Lanntair Arts Centre (Stornoway, Isle of Lewis), Bonhoga Gallery

(Weisdale, Shetland Isles), Timespan Heritage Centre and Gallery (Helmsdale, Sutherland)

and the Highland Council Exhibition Service, which programmes galleries in Wick, Thurso,

Inverness and Kingussie.

Common to all participating venues is their ‘not-for-profit’ status and the receipt of

funding from the Scottish Arts Council – either through capital Lottery funds, revenue

funding or the financial support of exhibition programmes or visual arts projects.

The remit of these not-for-profit organisations is seen to differ from that of the commercial

sector galleries in a number of ways. Whilst the bottom line for private galleries is the

generation of a profit from the sale of artwork, public galleries, by virtue of this public

funding, have a much broader mission including education, development of visual arts

audiences and artform development, and are more publicly accountable.

A number of venues participating in the project

house shared facilities alongside their galleries.

This maximises local access to centres in rural

areas, and offers a more diverse product to

visiting audiences. For instance, Timespan is

home to a large museum as well as a gallery, An

Tobar and An Lanntair are also popular

performance venues, and the Highland Council’s

Caithness galleries are both situated within local

libraries. Taigh Chearsabhagh, whilst offering

museum and gallery facilities, has also become

home to Lochmaddy’s local Post Office and a

venue for the delivery of Lews Castle College’s

‘Art and Design’ courses. Visual Arts Marketing Residencies



Additional funding for these organisations comes from a variety of different sources

depending on the location of centres and the dual roles that many undertake. Local

Councils, Local Enterprise Companies and Trust funds have all been important sources of

revenue for these organisations. However, all of these funding sources carry different, and

sometimes contradictory, obligations.

Retail and catering operations are also important ways of generating revenue and

developing audiences for many of these centres, and all of this adds to the uniqueness of

each organisation participating in the project.



Part Two: [ The Report ]

CCoonntteenntt

Like the Visual Arts Marketing Project, this report concentrates primarily on audience and

sales development practices as they relate to the not-for-profit visual arts sector. By

highlighting successful marketing practices witnessed at the organisations participating in

the project, it is hoped that relevant models of audience development may be shared across

the not-for-profit sector locally, or used to inform the practices of organisations working in

a similarly rural context in other areas.

The report also makes reference to the context in which these organisations work, and

their relation and positioning in regard to both private sector galleries and individual visual

arts practitioners. Section Four of the report goes on to explore the development of visual

artists’ promotional practices across the sector, and Section Five considers the current, and

the potential for future, marketing collaborations across both the public and private

sectors.

Finally, the report makes recommendations for an exit strategy for the marketing project,

alongside the organisations and agencies that should take on the responsibility for each

aspect of its implementation.



MMeetthhooddoollooggyy

The research used to inform this report was gathered during the two years of the Visual

Arts Marketing Project. Numerous methods were used for the collection of this data, the

main sources being:

• Interviews carried out with staff, key funders and stakeholders of all organisations

participating in the project.

• Interviews with directors and staff of private galleries across the region.

• Interviews with regional Council Arts Development Officers.

• Interviews with visual arts education providers across the region.

• Audience research carried out for each participating organisation, through in-house

self-completion questionnaires, mail surveys, focus groups and mystery shopping.

• Research with non-attending target audiences, through focus groups held in

Inverness and on Skye.

• Marketing surgeries and interviews with over 50 individual visual arts practitioners

across the region.

• Results of reader evaluation forms from the Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Guide

(1999-2002).

• Information gathered from two major Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Fora in

November 2000 and January 2002, with a combined attendance of over 120 visual

arts practitioners and administrators.

• Liaison with research staff of Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, on rural visual arts and

audience development research projects.

• Secondary research sources, including census results and local tourist board research

material.

A comprehensive list of texts used to inform the project, along with recommended further

reading, is available within the appendices of this report.


S e c t i o n T w o :

[ Overview ]

This section provides a brief introduction to the Highlands and Islands

region, its visual arts provision and key visual arts markets. It also

explores broader arts marketing practices within the region.


[ Section 2 – Overview ]

Part One: [ The Highlands & Islands ]

The Highlands and Islands region stretches some 640 kilometres from the Shetland Isles in

the north, to the southern tip of Argyll. The region has a total land area of over 39,000

square kilometres.

However, with a population of 373,000, the Highlands and Islands is one of the most

sparsely populated parts of the European Union, with a population density of just 9

persons per square kilometre, compared to an EU average of 116 per square kilometre.

The inner Moray Firth area contains nearly 20% of the region’s population, and the two

largest conurbations in the area are Inverness and Fort William, with populations of 40,000

and 11,500 respectively. Over 60% of the region’s residents live in rural areas or

settlements of fewer than 5,000 people, and whilst Inverness remains one of the fastest-

growing cities in Europe, many of the most sparsely populated communities within the

region are still suffering from out-migration.

The people and heritage of the modern Highlands and Islands have been influenced by

many different cultures over the last 2,000 years. In the Northern Isles (Shetland and

Orkney), the influence of Norse ancestors is still evident in the buildings, arts, crafts and

local dialect, whereas the Gaelic culture and language is still evident throughout much of

the mainland Highlands, and is strong in the Western Isles.

The service sector accounts for over two thirds of employment in the region, and is

characterised by the importance of public administration and tourism. Tourism itself

currently accounts for around 4.8 million visits to the Highlands and Islands each year,

which breaks down into 4.3 million UK visitors and 0.5 million overseas visitors*.

*VisitScotland figures for year 2000.



Part Two: [ Visual Arts Provision ]

NNoott--ffoorr--pprrooffiitt sseeccttoorr

The Highlands and Islands is an area with no particular indigenous visual arts tradition or

history of gallery-going. That is to say, whilst the area has been extensively plundered for

subject matter by visiting artists over the last two centuries, no native visual arts tradition

has existed. Only in Orkney, which has the longest-established purpose-built public

gallery in the Highlands and Islands, do we have an example of an area in which one whole

generation of a community has grown up with access to a public visual arts facility.

The Pier Arts Centre opened in 1979 as the result of the donation of an important

collection of twentieth century art, including work by Ben Nicholson and Barbara

Hepworth. Donated by Margaret Gardiner, the centre’s permanent collection was gifted

to the centre, not for its depiction of Orkney or the involvement of Orcadian artists, but

for the parallels between the landscape of Orkney and that of St. Ives, from which much of

the work took its inspiration. The influence of this well-established provision is now clear

to see, with Orkney supporting more private sector galleries and artists studios than any

other region in the Highlands and Islands.

Other public galleries followed later. The Highland Council’s Libraries and Leisure Services

opened small galleries within Wick Library in 1983 (St. Fergus Gallery) and Thurso Library

in 1984 (Swanson Gallery), these towns being the largest population centres north of

Inverness with comparatively cosmopolitan populations due to the siting of Dounreay

nuclear plant and an American communications base in the area.

The Highland Council Exhibition Service was set up in 1991 to originate exhibitions to tour

the circuit of Council galleries and other temporary Highland venues, curating, amongst

other shows, the highly-successful Highland Myth and Symbol exhibition (1991), which

included many now well-known Highland artists. The 1990s saw another two Council

galleries join this touring circuit – the Iona Gallery was established alongside the Highland

Folk Museum in Kingussie, and Inverness Museum and Gallery was added to the circuit in

1996.



An Lanntair Arts Centre opened in 1986 in central Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis with its

own critically-acclaimed exhibition ‘From the Land’, which marked the centenary of the

Crofting Act and went on to tour Canada in 1989 and 1990.

During the mid to late 1990s, public visual arts provision was significantly increased,

mainly thanks to Scottish Arts Council National Lottery funding. A number of purpose-

built, contemporary gallery spaces sprang up out of more modest local arts facilities,

including art.tm (formely Highland Printmakers, Inverness) and An Tuireann (Isle of Skye),

both of which, like Pier Arts Centre and An Lanntair, are now core-funded by the Scottish

Arts Council.

In addition, a purpose-built public gallery space was added to the Timespan Heritage Centre

in East Sutherland at this time, and the Shetland Arts Trust established Bonhoga Gallery in a

former mill building on the rural West Side of Shetland.

Taigh Chearsabhagh (North Uist) and An Tobar (Isle of Mull) also opened at this time, both

the result of community-led efforts to secure arts and heritage facilities for their respective

areas.

It can be seen, therefore, that the visual arts are in their infancy in the Highlands and

Islands, and this is the context in which these organisations now operate.



CCoommmmeerrcciiaall sseeccttoorr

The visual art of the Highlands and Islands is a growing sector, as can be seen from the

Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Guide. In the first edition of this publication, in 1999, the

guide contained 92 entries for visual arts organisations in the region. In the subsequent

edition, published in 2001, this number had risen to 128. Whilst some of these smaller

organisations were simply overlooked at the time of the first guide, the majority had

opened in the two years since the initial publication.

It is estimated that if the Guide were published today, it would contain more than 140

entries, including two recent major gallery developments in central Inverness - the Castle

Gallery and Studio Gallery.

Numerous ‘micro-businesses’ that make up the visual arts sector of the area account for the

sector’s current sustainability, and in instances where galleries have closed, a number have

usually sprung up to take their place.

The Visual Arts Guide itself contains an even balance of both individual artists’ studio

spaces, and small commercial galleries exhibiting a range of primarily local artists’ work.

The region’s highest profile commercial galleries specialising in local contemporary work

include Brown’s Gallery (Tain), Kilmorack Gallery (Beauly), Castle Gallery (Inverness) and

Kranenburg and Fowler Fine Arts (Oban), and these galleries have represented local artists at

national art fairs on occasion.

The Orkney Isles and the Isle of Skye are the two areas best-served by galleries and artists’

studios, with approximately one gallery per 1,000 residents, which also reflects the high

levels of tourism in these areas that help to sustain this level of provision. The most

populated areas of the Highlands around Inverness and Nairn are the worst served, with

just one gallery per 8,000 residents.

The value of the visual arts sector to the region is hard to estimate, but is currently thought

to be in the region of £2.5 million per year. The region’s galleries are thought to sustain

around 60 full-time equivalent jobs in addition to the numerous local visual artists whose

practice they support.



Part Three: [ Visual Arts Market ]

The 128 visual arts organisations represented in the Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Guide

2001-2002 are currently estimated to attract around 600,000 visits per year between them.

Of these, the public sector galleries represented in the Visual Arts Marketing Project receive

a total of 160,000 visits annually (around one quarter of the total for the sector).

These figures underestimate the volume of attendance generated across the sector. Many

other venues and open access studios are used for exhibitions by local artist associations,

individual practioners and visual arts organisations on a seasonal basis to access local

audiences and markets across the region, none of which are represented in the above

statistics.

TToouurriisstt AAuuddiieenncceess

An estimated two-thirds of these annual visits to galleries (approximately 400,000) are made

by tourists. This demonstrates the importance attached to reaching this transient audience

sector by the visual arts sector.

Visitors to the Highlands and Islands come from comparatively high socio-economic

groupings. 70% of UK visitors, and over 80% of overseas visitors, are from the ABC1

socio-economic groups – groups which are most likely to take an interest in gallery-going

and arts purchasing.

In addition, whilst tourism to the region has declined since the mid-nineties, the profile of

visitors that do visit has shifted to include more ‘cultural tourists’ with an interest in

enrichment rather than escapism, who are more inclined towards the visual arts.

Tourist visitors to the Highlands and Islands are also inclined to return to the region.

Indeed, over two-thirds of the region’s visitors are on return trips, and nearly 40% of

tourists have been on four or more previous visits to the area*. Therefore, nothing is

wasted in trying to develop tourist audiences for the arts of the region.

Visitors to the region place an emphasis on the purchase of work by local artists and of

artwork that is reminiscent of their visit (primarily landscapes).

*Statistics provided by the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board.



LLooccaall AAuuddiieenncceess

As with gallery attendance, there is little tradition of original artwork purchases in the

Highlands and Islands, especially from indigenous populations, and encouraging

accessibility to, and a culture of, the purchase of artwork must remain a high priority.

However, many commercial sector galleries also have access to a small but important

customer base of relatively wealthy individuals who have made their second home in the

Highlands and Islands, and who often come from areas with a greater culture of visual arts

purchasing.

Due to the rural locations (and often island locations) of the public galleries participating in

the project, many have extremely small local catchment populations. For example, An

Tobar on Mull serves an island community of less than 3,000 people. However, the

centre’s local audiences account for over 4,000 visits to the centre per year.

Similarly, from a dispersed community of around 6,000 people on the Uists in the Western

Isles, Taigh Chearsabhagh receive over 10,000 visits from local audiences annually.

Therefore, whilst audience figures may seem low in comparison to urban centres, the

market penetration of these rural visual arts organisations can often eclipse that of their

urban counterparts, and is often a product of the centres’ dual or triple functions.

Given their small local catchment populations and the underdevelopment of a gallery-going

tradition, the public galleries cannot afford to concentrate on ‘niche audiences’ for their

programme of contemporary arts. Neither do the Highlands and Islands have access to

significant numbers of specialist visual arts students, such as the 600 students of Gray’s

School of Art that can help to bolster attendance at the contemporary exhibitions of

Aberdeen.



Part Four: [ Marketing Practices ]

It is generally acknowledged that the marketing practices of the visual arts are less

developed than those of the performing arts. Whereas theatres and performance venues

have taken a more fundamentally customer-led approach to programming and marketing

that is sensitive to local communities, similar not-for-profit visual arts facilities can struggle

with a product-led approach, which often assumes that the inherent value of the

(contemporary) visual arts is a universally-accepted truth. This is particularly dangerous in

areas such as the Highlands and Islands, where there is little or no tradition of gallery-

going.

The broad arts sector of the Highlands and Islands is characterised by a multitude of

medium and small scale organisations, with an emphasis on effort at grassroots and

voluntary level, and whilst there are examples of good marketing practice across the area, it

is only a few performance venues that are of a scale to sustain arts marketing expertise

within their core staffing structures (including Inverness’s Eden Court Theatre and Portree’s

Aros Centre). Therefore, whilst visual arts organisations in other parts of the UK have been

able to take a lead from the more developed marketing practices of the performing arts,

this has not been the case in more rural areas.

Great potential exists for economies of scale through collaborative regional approaches to

arts marketing across the region’s numerous small to medium scale arts venues and

organisations. However, this has not yet been realised, mainly due to the absence of

marketing personnel to coordinate and deliver such projects.

On the other hand, examples of good practice in direct relationship marketing to key

target audiences exist within many of the centres participating in the marketing project,

often closely integrated with the delivery of specific projects and exhibitions. Some of

these will be explored later in this report.

However, overall marketing and campaign planning within these centres is often informal

and undertaken on an ad-hoc basis, which is mainly a result of intensive workloads in

delivering a visual arts service and the lack of dedicated marketing staff or structures.



AAuuddiieennccee DDeevveellooppmmeenntt PPoosstt

The demonstrated need for marketing development and coordination across all artforms in

the region has led to the establishment of an Audience Development project post based

within HI~Arts. Whilst being a cross-art form initiative, this post will take responsibility

for the implementation of a number of this report’s recommendations and, as a result, is

one of the key exit strategies for the Visual Arts Marketing Project.


S e c t i o n T h r e e :

[ Audience Development – Not-for-profit Sector ]

This section explores current audience development practices within the

organisations involved in the Visual Arts Marketing Project, whilst

highlighting models of good practice. It also makes recommendations as

to where marketing practices could be improved and where scope for

greater collaboration between participating galleries exists.


[ Section 3 – Audience Development ]

Part One: [ Accessibility ] Given the absence of a gallery-going tradition in the Highlands and Islands, it is important

to establish what barriers exist to access and participation across the region’s galleries.

During the course of the project, a number of focus groups and localised interviews were

conducted to explore these barriers. Focus groups were made up of people who were not

current attenders at public galleries, but described themselves as being interested in the arts,

and were therefore representative of key target audiences for the public galleries.

One of the main barriers to attendance for local audiences appears to be perceptions of the

‘difficulty’ associated with contemporary visual arts and their irrelevance to the rural

Highlands and Islands. Some considered the contemporary visual arts to be a ‘city thing’.

There were also perceptions of the exclusivity of the galleries themselves in terms of the

way in which the galleries communicate, or fail to communicate, with the public, and the

physical barriers thrown up by the gallery buildings.

Finally, some people also admitted to a lack of confidence in approaching the visual arts or

a discomfort in entering unfamiliar gallery spaces, feeling that they ought to have a sound

knowledge of the visual arts or the ‘etiquette’ of gallery-going before even crossing the

threshold. This is a concept that has been referred to as a lack of ‘cultural capital’.

Indeed, the design and layout of some contemporary galleries’ reception areas can be

somewhat sparse and confrontational. The most successful venues in terms of breaking

down barriers to access have been those that have created an environment that is more

welcoming and familiar to the experiences of local audiences.

In some cases, the ‘shop front’ of galleries can be overly reticent in communicating the

existence, function or content of centres, which has led to an unawareness of provision in

certain areas. This reticence can sometimes be due to the seasonality of audiences and the

inability to cope with the sheer volume of tourist visitors during summer months. For

example, in the case of Pier Arts Centre, attendance during the tourist season can be up to

fifteen times that of winter months, when the centre relies on a small core of local

attenders. This is one reason for the extension work currently being undertaken at the

centre.



The absence of suitable existing properties for the development of public galleries has led to

a number of centres being established in more remote areas that are less accessible to

audiences. To compound this, some galleries have encountered difficulties in establishing

road signage to their respective centres. As visitor attractions with accreditation from

VisitScotland, most centres are entitled to brown-thistle road signage to their venues.

However, this has proved difficult to attain in some areas, as local council roads

departments have taken a very different interpretation of the rules governing where signage

can be established. This has been particularly detrimental to developing tourist audiences,

but also limits local awareness of facilities.

To allow greater access to local audiences, most of whom are at work during the main

opening hours of galleries, some centres have introduced Sunday openings. In the case of

Bonhoga Gallery, staff found that Sunday opening stimulated a new profile of attenders and

day trippers to the more remote centre, including many more family visits. However,

Sunday opening is still not appropriate in parts of the Hebrides due to strict observance of

the Sabbath. In these areas, evening openings have been important, and some centres have

made a regular feature of exhibition preview events promoted widely to local audiences, as

opposed to the more exclusive ‘private view’ model favoured by other galleries.

Many visual arts organisations have successfully involved new audiences from their region

by breaking out of the confines of their buildings and into the community. To this effect,

Taigh Chearsabhagh has established a number of public art works throughout the Uists, An

Tobar hold an annual ‘arts picnic’ at the Calgary Arts in Nature Sculpture Trail on Mull, and

Bonhoga Gallery programme a network of five public venues with regularly changing

exhibitions, including cafés and leisure centres throughout the Shetland Isles.

A number of site-specific installations have been undertaken by the aptly-titled, but now

disbanded, visual arts organisation Another Space, generating huge audiences. The Magnus

Arts Bus was also a popular facility with local audiences and schools, delivering exhibitions

to more remote areas in a novel mobile gallery space that was perhaps less forbidding than

the gallery building.



Part Two: [ Programming ] Although the development of promotional practices and, more specifically, direct

relationship marketing, has been important in bolstering audiences in rural areas, the main

battles of local audience development have been won or lost in the arena of programming.

Perceptions remain of the ‘exclusivity’ and ‘irrelevance’ of modern art within the region’s

rural communities, and this is often to do with the absence of context in which ‘leading

edge’ artwork has begun to appear in these communities – many of which had no purpose-

built gallery space for this work until the mid 1990s.

Across the region, the exhibitions that are best-attended by local audiences are

characterised by the participation of local artists (either through solo shows, collaborations,

or Open events), the participation of local groups in the development of exhibitions,

exhibitions with locally relevant themes (i.e. the cultural, natural and built heritage of the

area), and more ‘accessible’ exhibitions, particularly those employing indigenous skills.

However, too populist an approach to programming exhibitions can inhibit art form

development, and limit local exposure to more contemporary work, whilst inhibiting the

inspiration and freedom of expression available to local artists exhibiting in the region.

Not-for-profit visual arts organisations in the Highlands and Islands therefore have the

challenge of balancing audience development with a programming policy that can ‘push

the envelope’ in terms of access to new types of work in a way that is appropriate to each

gallery’s local audience.

A balance can be struck by establishing an otherwise ‘missing context’ for the

contemporary visual arts within the theme of, or projects surrounding, an exhibition,

through the direct involvement of local communities in developing an original piece of art,

or through educational or interpretative support for the exhibitions that is both

appropriate and stimulating for local audiences.

Contemporary exhibitions without a context or appropriate support or product surround

have been detrimental to local audience development and have, on occasions, created some

local hostility towards centres. A number of organisations who initially embarked upon a

very avant garde programme have had to back pedal somewhat to win back local support.



[ Models of Good Practice ]

Under Canvas [ Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland Isles ]

Challenge: Music on Shetland is a well-developed sector in which Shetland Arts Trust has

invested much time and effort. However, visual arts audiences are less developed and, in 1999,

Bonhoga Gallery set out to use the established Shetland music scene as the basis for an innovative

and ambitious project.

Response: In 1999, Fife-based artist Richard Wemyss approached Shetland Arts Trust with a

proposal to produce portraits of Shetland musicians for an exhibition at Bonhoga Gallery.

However, this idea soon began to form the basis of a broader and more inclusive project.

A collection of short-stories about Shetland music, ‘Da Vaam o' da Skynbow: Notes Between the

Canvas’, was produced by writer and broadcaster Tom Morton to add elements of history and

legend to the exhibition, and a series of postcards was produced featuring Wemyss’s portraits. In

addition, a CD was made by the local musicians represented in the exhibition.

For maximum exposure, the project was programmed to coincide with the Cutty Sark Tall Ships

Race’s arrival in Shetland, which is a time when many native Shetlanders return home.

All of these facets to the project were brought together with the appropriate title ‘Under

Canvas’ and, to launch the exhibition, a large art nouveau, mirrored 1920s Spiegeltent was hired,

and set up in Shetland’s main town, Lerwick. Over four days, this venue became the venue for

non-stop live music from musicians featured in the exhibition and on the CD.

Free buses were provided by Bonhoga Gallery to transport audiences from the Spiegeltent venue

to the gallery to visit the exhibition. A series of complementary satellite exhibitions were

scheduled into public buildings around Shetland during the project, and local artists were

encouraged to produce work that would document the project and the impressive Tall Ships

Race during the event.

Outcomes: 16,000 people visited the Spiegeltent over the four days, and many of these went on

to see the exhibition. The CD accompanying the project was well received by the national

music press and helped to generate exposure for the wider project and Bonhoga itself.

The CD, book and postcards produced for ‘Under Canvas’ still provide a source of income, and

are a tangible legacy of the project, as well as being quality pieces of Shetland memorabilia in

their own right. The project raised the profile of Shetland Arts Trust with the local public, but

also closely allied visual arts with the successes of the more developed Shetland music sector.



11.. CCrreeaattiinngg aa CCoonntteexxtt

In an area with little to no tradition of gallery-going, and therefore a lack of context for

more innovative artwork, the most successful exhibitions and projects have been those

innovative enough to create a context in which contemporary visual artwork can become

more relevant to the local community.

This context has been achieved in the delivery of the visual arts through the reintegration

of local social and natural heritage (i.e. Taigh Chearsabhagh’s ‘Road Ends’ project, Will

Maclean’s ‘Memorial of the Heroes’), through

collaboration with more established local art

forms such as music, poetry, indigenous crafts

and story telling (i.e. Bonhoga Gallery’s ‘Under

Canvas’ project), and through more familiar

media such as film-making and new media (i.e.

Taigh Chearsabhagh’s ‘Uistory’).

This creation of context has often blurred the boundaries between the visual arts and

heritage, sociology and other art forms, but these methods have all proved successful in

developing visual arts audiences and participation in the Highlands and Islands, and should

help to develop the art form in a way that is locally authentic in the longer term.

A cairn from the project ‘Memorial of the Heroes’,

commemorating the Hebridean Land Struggles. The cairns were designed by Scottish artist, Will Maclean,

and built by local stonemason, Jim Crawford.




‘Uistory’ New Media Project [ Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist ]

Challenge: Taigh Chearsabhagh is an arts centre and

museum based in the Western Isles. Many of the projects

that it has recently pursued have had the challenge of creating

a local context and relevance, and therefore a local audience,

for the visual arts in the sparsely populated Uists, by blurring

the boundaries between the visual arts and the

documentation and interpretation of local heritage.

Response: In 2001, locally based designer and new media artist, Alec Ohnstad, was recruited

to create a new media project documenting the legends of the Uists.

Initially, a number of myths and legends from the Uists were collected from local people in the

best ‘oral history’ tradition, and written up as texts in both Gaelic and English. These texts then

acted as the inspiration for a series of short computer animations.

As an educational component to the project, Alec worked closely with local primary school

children to illustrate the stories and begin to animate and create soundtracks for each legend. He

then used the illustrations created to develop final sophisticated animations for the stories.

A number of local volunteers were then recorded dictating the ‘Uistories’, again in both Gaelic

and English, and these soundtracks, along with additional sound effects created by the children

participating in the project, were added to the animations.

Outcomes: A ‘Uistory’ CD-Rom has now been produced, alongside an audio cassette of the

stories and a guide book with map of the islands detailing the areas referred to by each story, and

is now being sold by Taigh Chearsabhagh.

The project has involved local people of all ages. The use of new media has given an immediacy

to this heritage project with younger audiences, whilst the Gaelic content has given a strong

sense of local ownership amongst the older and indigenous people of the area. The artistic

dimension has infused the process with creativity, and engaged and educated young children

and, by extension, their families. The finished product is of interest to the wide local

community and to tourist visitors to the islands, and also strengthens the centre’s economic

position to continue similar work.

A still from Taigh Chearsabhagh’s new media project, ‘Uistory’.



22.. DDiirreecctt PPaarrttiicciippaattiioonn

Other centres have introduced new local audiences to the visual arts through the initiation

of projects involving their communities directly in the creative process, often adding a

more overt social and educational dimension to the process.

The ‘Road Ends’ project in the Western Isles involved the islands’ most rural communities

in the creation of a number of public art works that were both sympathetic to their

environment, and reinforced a sense of identity and rejuvenation in what have been areas

of significant out migration.

Whereas ‘Road Ends’ took art to the most rural areas of the Outer Hebrides, Bonhoga

Gallery’s ‘Street as Gallery’ project sought to displace the visual arts from their remote

location on the rural West Side of Shetland by turning the main shopping street in

Lerwick, Shetland’s main town, into the ‘canvas’ for the project, to maximise local

participation with, and exposure to, the visual arts.

Included in the project, which took direct participation in

the arts as a theme, was a photography documentation

project of the life of Lerwick’s main square, ‘Da Cross’, by

Adam Elder, as well as a resident pavement artist and art

installations within shops. In addition, flags were created in

a project with local primary school children to celebrate the

history of each of the small lanes off Lerwick’s main street,

the results of a children’s animation project was shown in

shop windows, and art signage was created by artists in

collaboration with retail outlets in the town centre to produce

A-Boards advertisements for these businesses. The project also encompassed three week-

long artistic residencies with ongoing workshops in an otherwise disused Lerwick building

of historical importance.

Such projects have raised the awareness of the work of local galleries and challenged local

perceptions of the visual arts as passive or irrelevant. As a result, they have provided

advocacy for the galleries from new sectors of the community.

A pavement artist speaks to local reporters in Lerwick, during the

‘Street as Gallery’ project.




Road Ends Sculptures [ Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist ]

Challenge: The Road Ends Project was initiated in 1998 to

involve the most remote and fragile communities in the Uists

directly, many for the first time, in the visual arts.

Response: The Road Ends Project invited small, scattered

townships to work alongside a professional artist to place an

environmental sculpture in their area to celebrate their

history and culture, and to experience and be a part of a

creative process from start to finish.

Funded by the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund

and Western Isles Enterprise, it set out to bring communities

together by seeking a collective response to what people felt

was identifiable and important to their locality. In a wider

context, the project sought to draw new visitors to these

more remote places, with the artworks offering a unique

interpretation of the communities and surrounding

landscapes. In all, three artists – Roddy Mathieson, Valerie

Pragnell and Ian Stephen – worked with four communities to

produce the public art works in South Lochboisdale and

Benbecula between 1998 and 2000.

Outcomes: Overall, the project involved 112 adults and children at a number of levels – from

completing questionnaires on what they thought was important to their community, to digging

up electricity poles and actually contributing to the making of the work at the Claddach

Baleshare and South Lochboisdale sites.

Signage to the sites has now been erected, and a guide leaflet to these works, as well as Taigh

Chearsabhagh’s other public artworks in North Uist, has been produced. The sculptures have

become tourist attractions in their own right, bringing visitors to these previously less visited,

fragile communities. Taigh Chearsabhagh was recently recognised by the British Urban

Regeneration Awards as a model for outstanding community regeneration. The Road Ends

project played a key role in the receipt of this award.

Artist Ian Stephen works with children

in Balivanich on the creation of ‘Stones Swim to Islands’

Detail from ‘The Listening Place’

(South Lochboisdale) by Valerie Pragnell

Creation of ‘The Listening Place’

in South Lochboisdale



33.. VViieewweerr SSuuppppoorrtteedd

Access to clear interpretative material on exhibitions and documentation on exhibiting

artists can establish relevant ‘ways in’ to contemporary artwork for audiences. However,

these tools are somewhat underdeveloped at Highlands and Islands public galleries, aside

from cases in which exhibitions come with these materials already provided.

There are three key areas in which there is room for improvement in interpretation offered

to audiences:

• Pre-visit, in the form of the additional distribution of interpretative synopses

through programme material, exhibition posters, members’ newsletters, preview

invitations, previews generated in the press, and café tabletop material in centres

with catering facilities.

• On-site, in the form of gallery interpretation panels, hand held interpretation

material and free programmes, talks by exhibiting artists, activity sheets for

children, gallery tours and audio interpretation where appropriate.

• Post-visit, in the form of take-away interpretative material and on-line

documentation.

Given the small number of galleries that have the time and staff resources (through

Education or Arts for All posts) to produce comprehensive materials around an exhibition,

the more interpretation material that can be provided to galleries as a condition of

exhibition hire, the better.

Another area of underdevelopment is ‘arts appreciation’. With little public access to

artwork work produced prior to the late 20th Century, Highlands and Islands audiences

have little historical context of the visual arts on which to base their understanding or

appreciation of the new work exhibited through the network of public galleries. However,

‘arts appreciation events’, whether formal or more innovative and accessible in style, are

somewhat absent across the region since the discontinuation of the Scottish Arts Council’s

‘Lecture Scheme’.




Hangar Project [ Another Space, Highlands ]

Challenge: Easter Ross based visual arts organisation Another

Space have always risen to the challenge of presenting ‘difficult’

contemporary work in a way that is relevant and engaging for

the communities in which they exhibit. As their name suggests,

Another Space concentrate on the presentation of site-specific

exhibitions, which add a new dimension and context to the

work for viewers.

Response: The ‘Hangar Project’ in the summer of 1999 used a

large hangar on a desolate former military airfield on the

Cromarty Firth to present the exhibition ‘Gernika!’. Artists

from the Highlands and the Spanish Basque country, amongst

others, created site specific installations for the symbolic

exhibition centred around Picasso’s seminal Modernist painting

'Guernica' and a pivotal event of the Twentieth century, the

Spanish Civil War.

The significance of siting the exhibition on a former military airfield was not lost on artists or

audiences, and during the course of project development and exhibition, Another Space used

‘Gernika!’ as a catalyst to uncover connections linking the Highlands, the Basque country and the

exhibition’s subject matter through a process of community consultancy in the local press. As a

result, additional documentation material was established for the exhibition, revealing amongst other

things, that the Spanish monarchy took vacations in Sutherland, and that William Joyce, later Lord

Haw Haw of German Nazi propaganda fame, had strong connections with Ardgay and had held pro

Fascist rallies in Inverness. It was also discovered that the British Navy's Atlantic Fleet had mutinied

whilst in the Cromarty Firth in 1931.

An Inverness visitor to the exhibition had served as a battallion commander in the International

Brigade, two other local visitors had both fought for Republican forces in Spain, and a Gairloch lady

was astounded to see a photograph of her father in a selection of Spanish Civil War images.

Outcomes: The exhibition attracted 10,000 people over just four weeks, characterised by an older

profile of visitor that is uncommon to the contemporary arts, all of whom engaged with the

exhibition’s subject matter. A further 2,500 people visited a subsequent three-week Highland tour of

the Gernika! artworks on the Magnus Arts Bus. The exhibition toured Spain in 2000 and 2001.

The ‘Gernika!’ exhibition, which included work by Elizabeth Ogilvie

and Andy Stenhouse.



SSeeaassoonnaall aapppprrooaacchheess ttoo PPrrooggrraammmmiinngg,, LLiinneeaarr aapppprrooaacchheess ttoo DDeevveellooppmmeenntt

The seasonality of audiences is a problem to all the public galleries, and this results in many

centres being somewhat overwhelmed with attenders during the tourist season, whilst

struggling to attract viable local audiences on a regular basis during the winter months.

Many centres have successfully managed to bolster local attendance outside of the tourist

season by adopting a seasonal approach to programming.

The programming of exhibitions involving greater local participation or interest, such as

local artist Open exhibitions, has been seen to increase local attendance during the quiet

season, whilst programming more ‘leading edge’ work in the summer months, when

galleries have access to larger and potentially ‘niche’ audiences from tourist visitors,

optimises the attendance for these exhibitions.

However, against this more seasonal and circular approach to programming, the galleries

must also strive to adopt a linear approach to visual artform development, and to the

development of ‘cultural capital’ within their core, year-round local audiences.

This process of development must take as its starting point the unique level of

understanding and appreciation that each gallery’s local community has of the visual arts in

order to be appropriate. It must also recognise the importance of establishing direct

participation in, and the context and support for, its programme of exhibitions. In this

way, it can be seen that local audience development is a work intensive operation, whilst

developing tourist audiences is a cost-intensive one.



Part Three: [ Education ]

In an area where the visual arts are in their infancy, education projects are a hugely

important audience development tool. Where more ‘leading edge’ or ‘avant garde’ work

has been pursued, it has often only succeeded to attract local audience when support has

been offered to audiences through comprehensive and relevant interpretation, and a

relevant and engaging outreach and education programme. In this respect, a relevant

‘product surround’ is often as important as the exhibitions programmes themselves.

However, only An Lanntair and Taigh Chearsabhagh in the Western Isles and An Tuireann

on Skye now have access to an Education Officer to develop this in a more sustained and

structured way, whilst other centres rely heavily on artistic residencies as a means of

delivering a programme of outreach and education.

Most centres programme arts workshops and classes for their communities. Most notably,

art.tm offers its membership and local audiences a broad programme of art classes for a

range of abilities through a roster of professional tutors. Bonhoga Gallery has also been able

to deliver a packed year-round workshop programme, which is organised almost

exclusively through its active and voluntary Friends Association. These workshops

currently run at an impressive average of 80% of capacity attendance.

In terms of more formal education programmes, Taigh Chearsabhagh has formed an alliance

with Lews Castle College to deliver HNC and Diploma courses in Art and Design within

the centre. This has raised awareness of the centre, and provided opportunities for many

Western Isles inhabitants to pursue a qualification in the visual arts without having to leave

the islands. The range of established visual artists visiting the centre to tutor the course has

also helped to raise the ambitions and standards of the visual arts locally. The courses add

to the dynamism of the centre, with up to twenty visual arts students ‘in residence’ at the

centre, which has an important factor in boosting activity at the centre during the quieter

months of the year, which broadly coincide with college term time.

Other centres, such as Pier Arts Centre, have retained close links with alumni from local art

departments in Orcadian schools and colleges, and offered students a Graduation Degree

Show on their return from mainland art colleges, to provide opportunities for artists to

develop their work and careers within the Orkney Isles.




The Scribble Festival [ An tuireann, Portree, Isle of Skye ]

Challenge: Access to the centre had been low from local teenagers

and young adults, the elderly, and populations to the south and west

of Skye, for whom An Tuireann is less accessible.

Response: An Tuireann decided to address under-representation of

these groups through one innovative project. The ‘Scribble Festival’

was funded by the Scottish Arts Council’s ‘Innovative Visual Arts

Education Award Scheme’, the Highland Council, and sponsorship

from local building firm Ewen Gillies matched by Arts and Business’s

‘New Partners’ fund.

The Festival, which ran over several weeks in 2001, was planned to coincide with National Big Draw

Day, as well as the local Talisker Food Festival. Events included:

A ‘Doodle Competition’ for children was launched across the region in partnership with the West

Highland Free Press newspaper to stimulate awareness of the Festival.

An exhibition of large drawings by Professor Tim Jones of Glasgow School of Art was held in the

main gallery, and practical workshops on drawing using movement and the ‘Alexander Technique’

were held with the over-sixties and special needs groups.

Eight students from Glasgow School of Art also conducted drawing-based residencies with children

within four schools on the island and on the neighbouring island of Raasay.

Two cartoon workshops were held with 14-18 year olds looking at communicating ideas and issues

through drawing and humour.

‘Talisker Beach Drawing Picnic’ was held on the west of Skye to decentralise activity away from

Portree, to tie in with the Food Festival, and to encourage family participation.

A ‘Scribble Room’ was created in the centre’s second gallery, where children and young people

were encouraged to add to the drawings and scribbles on the walls over the period of the Festival.

Outcomes: The delivery of the Festival over several weeks allowed for the dispersion of all-

important word-of-mouth within the community, and had a cumulative effect on audiences. The

centre received over 200 entries for the ‘Doodle Competition’, whilst the ‘Scribble Room’ proved

extremely popular with local teenagers! The Festival is thought to have made a lasting impact on

local awareness of An Tuireann and its work across Skye, and was highly commended in the annual

awards of Drawing Power, the organisation behind the National Big Draw Day.

Sand drawing at the Beach Picnic

(top), Alexander Technique workshop (bottom)



SScchhoooollss

As part of the Visual Arts Marketing Project, research was conducted with all standard and

higher level high school art teachers across the Highlands and Islands to establish how well

the network of public galleries were used as a resource by local schools.

Of the thirty respondents to surveys, only 50% of the schools made use of their local

public gallery. In many cases, travel was cited as a reason for not using the galleries more

often. Indeed, the average distance of respondents from their local gallery is 30 miles, and

traveling to these facilities also means a ferry journey for many. As a result, many teachers

reported that they could not justify the time out of school to visit the relatively small

exhibitions that the visual arts centres of the Highlands and Islands could accommodate.

As a result, over 70% of those surveyed agreed that visits by a touring arts bus would be

their ideal solution to access issues, along with greater amount of outreach work from

public galleries to service a wider area.

However, a number of schools from the Highlands, Lochaber and Argyll currently run

excursions to Central Belt galleries, as the scale and provision of these facilities can justify a

day or more out of school. These galleries often offer educational support for schools

through more established and permanent collections. This is one of the prime arguments

for the establishment of a major gallery facility and permanent art collection in the central

Highlands.

The majority of teachers surveyed suggested that the provision of teaching and

interpretative material around exhibitions, along with greater consultation with schools on

programming or greater forwarning of exhibitions, would encourage greater use of local

facilities. A number of teachers pointed to a need for educational and interpretative

materials to be produced centrally when originating touring exhibitions, rather than

relying on individual host galleries.

Almost 50% of teachers mentioned that they would welcome the introduction of school

liaison or education posts within all public galleries. However, of the art teachers

surveyed, 75% believed that there was potential to work more closely with their local

public galleries.



[ Model of Good Practice ]

‘Portraits and Dreams’ Exhibition [ An Tuireann, Portree, Isle of Skye ]

Challenge: In 2001, An Tuireann had the challenge of stimulating interest and participation

around a major photography exhibition ‘Portraits and Dreams’ from communities more remote

to the centre. The exhibition was the result of a collaboration between artist Wendy Ewald and

children from a similarly rural community in Kentucky, and explored the lives and dreams of

the children through their own eyes. The exhibition was secured for An Tuireann through Stills

Gallery in Edinburgh.

Response: An Tuireann set about creating an educational project around the exhibition by

mirroring the project Ewald had undertaken in Kentucky with local primary children from the

rural community of Glenelg, some 30 miles from An Tuireann.

Western Isles-based photographer, Olwen Shone, led the project,

which placed importance on getting the children into the gallery

space itself and engaging with the exhibition. An initial trip to

the gallery was made by the group to consider and take

inspiration from the Ewald exhibition. Having seen the

exhibition, the children were all presented with disposable

cameras to begin to document their own lives and dreams.

A room within the Glenelg primary school was turned into a dark room, and the children were

taught techniques for developing their films. A creative writing aspect to the project was also

undertaken by Glenelg primary school, and the children created short texts to complement their

photographs. The resulting images and texts were then framed by the gallery and presented

alongside the Ewald exhibition at An Tuireann.

On National Children’s Art Day in 2001, the children involved in

the project, along with their friends and families, were invited to an

afternoon reception at the gallery to see the exhibitions side by side.

Outcomes: By using the exhibition and gallery as a main reference

point for the project, the centre was able to engage the children

with the artwork and stimulate attendance. The exhibition of the

children’s work in the gallery itself drew many visits from the

Glenelg community, encouraged local ownership of the centre,

and empowered the children with new skills.

Artist Olwen Shone with the children involved in the project

An image created for the project by Glenelg children



Part Four: [ The Marketing Mix ]

In terms of annual expenditure on marketing activity, all of the centres involved in the

Visual Arts Marketing Project are below the recommended marketing budget figure of 10%

of annual turnover. In addition, a number of centres are not properly budgeting the costs

of marketing into their applications for project and touring exhibition funding.

A large amount of marketing activity conducted by these centres is intrinsic within the

delivery of projects, and is therefore work intensive rather than cost intensive, however,

generic and direct marketing pratices are somewhat underdeveloped within centres.

For instance, in some cases, the branding of organisations was found to be inconsistent

across the promotional material, advertising and signage, which compromised immediate

recognition of the centre’s publicity and lessened the impact of simultaneous promotional

campaigns. In a few cases, generic promotional leaflets were not available for the centre, or

had not been distributed effectively. This all had a detrimental effect, especially on tourist

attendance at centres, and is reflected in the number of visitors to centres reporting that

they had stumbled on the venue by accident rather than planned their visit.

MMeeddiiaa

Local press coverage is an extremely important marketing tool for rural galleries, and the

exceptionally high support and readership for local newspapers in the Highlands and

Islands means that any positive editorial coverage generated can offer strong ‘peer

endorsement’ of these centres to local communities.

An example of this is the Shetland Times, which has an estimated readership of 13,000 in an

area with a population of just 23,000. Local community newsletters are also a feature of

the region, and can have even more impact within communities. What is more, these

publications are often read cover to cover.

However, local newspapers often do not have dedicated arts reporters or reviewers, and

therefore the profile and standard of arts editorial is often low, especially for the visual arts.

In a number of cases, galleries have been asked to preview or review on behalf of local



newspapers. Whilst this is a welcome development, it does not give the ‘third party

endorsement’ of the centre’s work which can be provided by independent writers.

As a result of this, HI~Arts has committed to establishing an online arts journal for the

region, which will seek to commission features on arts events and exhibitions from local

writers and, potentially, to give basic training for new writers. It is hoped that such a

project will also have a wider impact upon regional media coverage.

Another potential solution to this would be the establishment of an ‘arts writer vocational

scholarship’ post supported by, and shared between, a number of local newspapers, with

the aim of reporting a diverse range of events, exhibitions and arts activities for a range of

local publications and media.

A similar lack of coverage of the galleries exists in the national press, but for different

reasons. More often than not, the arts departments at national newspapers cannot justify

the expense of review trips to Highlands and Islands galleries. As a result, many key visual

arts journalists have not seen many of the regions recent gallery developments, and

therefore do not consider them when searching for stories.

A potential model for the development of national media coverage of the regions arts can

be found later in the report. However, in the shorter term, there is a need for galleries to

pursue national coverage more thoroughly, and ensure that press releases are followed up

with phone calls to relevant journalists.

CCoommmmuunniiccaattiioonn

It is important that a gallery communicates appropriately with its potential audience,

whether through promotional material, advertising or editorial. The language used by

centres to promote exhibitions to local communities is sometimes unnecessarily formal and

inappropriate to target attenders and, in the worst cases, includes art school ‘jargon-ese’

copied word-for-word from the artist’s statement.

In general, the participating galleries are careful to programme exhibitions that will have

some sort of resonance with local communities. However, the reasons behind their choice



of programming and the exhibition’s relevance to the community are not always

communicated effectively within promotional material.

In addition, galleries often miss opportunities to highlight the stature and importance of

many of their exhibiting artists to local audiences, who are sometimes unaware of the

repute of artists working and exhibiting in their community.

A model of communication that has been adopted by the performing arts sector appeals

more to the potential audience’s sensations and emotions than to overly technical language,

and involves anticipating the potential attender’s questions about the exhibition (“What

will I see?”, “How will it make me feel?”, etc.) and answering them in an enticing and

appropriate way.

A number of performing arts venues have also used the method of ‘personal endorsements’

in promotional material to good effect. This has often taken the form of short

recommendations for each forthcoming exhibition from a number of ‘voices’ of the

organisation (i.e. staff, board, Friends members) within programme material. This often

provides more forceful advocacy for attendance than a third person monologue can.

Given that all the Hebridean galleries involved in the marketing project have Gaelic names,

there are also opportunities to make better use of the language to engage with indigenous

Gaelic-speaking audiences in direct marketing material, especially in the Western Isles.

Indeed, there appear to be no clear policies for the use of Gaelic in many of these centres,

and it is recommended that policies for Gaelic use be clarified within the ‘marketing mix’

of these centres.



DDiirreecctt MMaarrkkeettiinngg aanndd DDaattaa CCaappttuurree

Both TGI statistics and ACORN classifications are somewhat redundant in establishing and

targeting certain audience profiles in rural areas such as the Highlands and Islands, and

neither can visual arts organisations with such a finite potential customer base afford to

concentrate exclusively on any one niche audience segment.

However, all galleries participating in the Visual Arts Marketing Project are involved in

direct marketing activity to current customers, primarily through the mailing of preview

invitations, members’ newsletters and the like. Most centres hold a number of databases,

including local artists, members, stakeholders, local VIPs, art buyers, and so on.

However, many centres currently have poor practices in the retention and upkeep of

customer data, sometimes holding multiple lists with duplicate records or having no

processes for cleaning out old and out-of-date addresses from their databases.

As a result of the marketing project, many centres have now created centralised and

segmented databases, which are easier to maintain and cross-reference, and can automate

processes such as annual renewal notices for members. In addition, a number of centres

have started to stamp outgoing mail with the centre’s return postal address to ensure out-

of-date addresses are removed from the database. This not only saves postage costs, but is

also crucial to compliance with the Data Protection Act.

A greater percentage of people from the Highlands and Islands have access to the Internet

than in many other areas of the country, and some galleries have started to develop direct

email databases to conduct direct marketing. Email distribution is free, has greater

immediacy than direct mail, and can be used to hold a two-way dialogue with audiences.

Email distribution is an especially useful tool for centres with catering and retailing

facilities to quickly and effectively promote new lines of stock, or incentivised offers.

Centres have recruited people to their email lists through in-house sign-up sheets, on-line

forms on their websites, and incentivised email sign-up campaigns to local businesses with

email addresses in the public domain.

An Tuireann gallery and the Aros Centre, the Isle of Skye’s main performance venue and

cinema, have worked cooperatively to build email databases to cross-promote the arts on



Skye. However, this example of a cooperative approach between arts organisations is the

exception rather than the rule, and there are many opportunities to develop marketing

coordination between organisations where audience cross-over exists. For instance, a

strong cross-over between visual arts and contemporary dance audiences exist and, in this

case, there are opportunities for art.tm to collaborate with Eden Court, Inverness’ main

performance venue, on promotion. It is one aim of the Highlands and Islands Audience

Development Project to develop these links.

TToouurriisstt PPrroommoottiioonn

Whilst marketing to local audiences is primarily time-consuming, marketing to visitor

audiences is costly. However, as tourists often make up 60% or more of galleries customer

base, this is a market they can not afford to ignore. This means that there is a continued

need for public galleries to adopt local tourist board membership and conduct a basic

amount of advertising in the main tourist publications.

VisitScotland Visitor Attraction Commendation is also now an essential for these

organisations, and the absence of this award on publicity material and in advertisements

can look conspicuous when all other visitor attractions have commendation. The

commendation process itself has been useful for organisations to indicate where

improvements can be made to better serve their audiences.

The centres involved in the marketing project should all be achieving a four star

commendation as a minimum. All have the facilities to achieve this level of

commendation, and any less suggests basic weaknesses in customer service, or other

barriers to accessibility.

On the other hand, whilst tourist audiences are primarily seasonal, the public galleries

must cater for local audiences on a year-round basis, and it is suggested that the

requirements for achieving five-star visitor attraction status can sometimes threaten the

informality of venues that makes them more appealing and accessible to local audiences.

Therefore, a balanced approach is required here.



Part Five: [ Advocacy ]

To explore the issue of local advocacy for visual arts centres, one must take into account

the issue of their establishment. Almost without exception, the galleries that have been

able to generate the most support and attendance from local audiences have been those that

have been created as a result of ‘grassroots development’, as opposed to being ‘imposed’ on

communities in any way.

The best example of grassroots development is Taigh Chearsabhagh in North Uist, a centre

which was established as the result of collaboration between two well-established

community groups – the Uist Arts Association and the North Uist Historial Society. The

direct participation of these groups, and the subsequent sense of centre ownership that this

engendered locally, add to the centre’s relevance and appropriateness to local audiences.

It this way, it can be seen that centres that have been established as the result of grassroots

development have a head start on other centres in terms of local advocacy. However,

whilst the way in which centres are established is important in establishing community

support in the short term, many centres have found ways to foster local support and

ownership, primarily by generating positive local word of mouth and advocacy.

In small, close-knit rural communities, word of mouth plays an extremely important role.

In the public galleries in which surveys were conducted, 30% of visitors to galleries stated

that they had visited the centre on the recommendation of another. This compares to an

average of 5% of visitors who had picked up a leaflet or 10% who had seen a poster.

Whilst this may be explained in part by underdeveloped generic marketing, it follows a

pattern for rural areas. Word of mouth or ‘peer endorsement’ is not only important in

stimulating local attendance, but it is also essential for attracting tourist visitors, who often

rely on recommendations from the likes of local guest house proprietors, shop staff and

taxi drivers to plan their itineraries. Therefore, if local support can be established, this

inevitably has a positive knock-on effect on tourist audiences.

In terms of tourism, many galleries feel that their local tourist boards are not providing an

advocacy role for the arts, and a number of tourist boards have not yet substantially

integrated the area’s arts into their promotion of the area or used the arts as a tool for

stimulating niche tourism.



CCrreeaattiinngg AAddvvooccaaccyy iinn tthhee CCoommmmuunniittyy

Galleries have been able to create local advocacy for their centres in a variety of ways,

including the establishment of local ambassadors for galleries through Friends membership

schemes, talks with community groups and the facilitation of local art group exhibitions.

The documentation and promotion of local outreach and education work that has been

conducted by the centre is also important for raising awareness and support for facilities.

Some of the galleries involved in the project have actively targeted local groups, businesses

and industries that are under-represented in the audiences of the centre, and invited them

to familiarisation events. Particularly useful familiarisation events have been held for

tourist industry ‘frontliners’, such as local guesthouse and bed and breakfast proprietors,

taxi drivers , tour guides and tourist informnation staff, who all have the potential to play a

key advocacy role for centres.

An advantage of working in a small community is the potential to target these under-

represented audiences very precisely, and a number of galleries have used innovative arts

projects to involve new audiences and develop advocates for centres for new and

unexpected audiences. Good examples of this include An Tobar Arts Centre’s ‘Garages’ and

‘In Shore’ projects, which were developed by professional visual artists in close

collaboration with the Isle of Mull’s garage mechanics and fishermen respectively.

Both of these projects placed a genuine respect for these skilled manual workers at the

heart of the creation of an art exhibition and, as a result, have generated advocacy for the

centre from these groups.




’Treasure Island’ Garages Project [ An Tobar, Isle of Mull ]

Challenge: An Tobar had an absence of certain profiles of

attender at their arts centre. Most notably, attendance and

participation was low from local male, skilled manual workers.

Response: To address this, a very specific project was devised in

2001 around the origination of an exhibition, in which this key

audience sector would play a leading role.

The project, funded by the now-unavailable New Directions funding,

took the life and work of the mechanics of the island’s six rural

garages as its inspiration, and a professional arts photographer from

Manchester, Dinu Li, was recruited to develop an exhibition for An

Tobar by working through a series of residencies within these

garages. Dinu worked alongside the mechanics, using their

narratives to inform his approach to the creation of the exhibition.

A series of photographs were taken, along with oral histories from

each participating mechanic.

The resulting exhibition, ‘Treasure Island’ juxtaposes abstract

photographs depicting scenes within the workspaces of the local

garages with sound recordings of their experiences, and ideas and

beliefs with regards to modernity and tradition. The resulting

exhibition installation served to celebrate this particular group of

islanders, alongside the unique loyalty of the residents towards each

other and their environment.

Outcomes: Through the project, a sector of the community

became directly involved in the life and work of the centre and the

creation of art. The men involved all visited the centre to see the

exhibition with their families and, for some, it was the first time

they had visited the centre. A number have continued to attend as a

result of the project. However, An Tobar are confident that, even

those who are still not regular attenders, are now much more

inclined to spread positive word of mouth about the centre to

family, friends and island visitors.

Dinu Li with the participants and images of the Garages Project



CCrreeaattiivvee PPaarrttnneerrsshhiippss

Given a shortage of sponsorship opportunities for public galleries in the Highlands and

Islands, mainly due to the lack of medium to large scale businesses based in the region, the

arts sector has sought other creative ways of collaborating with community businesses and

organisations.

An Tobar has developed links with a variety of businesses and voluntary groups across Mull

by presenting exhibitions in ‘partnership’ with local businesses and groups. These

partnerships can raise the profile of the arts centre in the wider community by directly

involving new groups and encourage greater ownership of centres by local communities.

Often the level of sponsorship involved in such collaborations is low, although partners

will often cover the costs of entertaining at preview events. However, many more ‘in-

kind’ benefits exist for both parties.

For the gallery, partnerships are a way of actively targeting and involving new groups that

may not usually attend exhibitions. Community partnerships also often help to make

exhibitions more newsworthy locally, and bring wider community recognition and

endorsement for the centre’s work.

Practical benefits for partners can include branding within the centre and on exhibition

publicity, and partnerships with exhibitions can raise awareness of the partner’s business or

group through enhanced press coverage and word of mouth. Partners can use exhibition

previews to entertain their staff, customers, clients and friends, and charities can use them

as fundraising events.

There are also opportunities for skills to be shared between Highlands businesses and the

arts, as is being proved by the current partnership between Timespan Heritage Centre and

Gallery in Sutherland and Marks and Spencer management staff. Here, thanks to an Arts

and Business mentoring initiative, Timespan are working with professional retail managers

to improve the centre’s organisational practices and its potention for income generation,

especially within its shop and café facilities.



GGaalllleerryy FFrriieennddss

Friends Groups and Associations can also provide strong links into the community and

develop advocacy at a grassroots level. However, few arts centres have yet developed these

schemes to their full potential, and many operate Friends groups simply as donation

schemes.

Bonhoga Gallery Friends Association is perhaps the best example of a proactive scheme,

which engenders a strong sense of centre ownership within its members. Through the

voluntary assistance of the Friends, the centre has been able to deliver a year-round

community workshop programme, and they are also proactive fundraisers for the centre

and a stimulus for social events.

It is not only important for Friends schemes to clearly promote relevant benefits to

potential members, but schemes should also specify tangible benefits of membership fees to

the organisation to show subscribers that they are making a difference to the centre –

whether this be in terms of the annual number of workshops supported by the Friends

fund, or a specific piece of equipment for the centre that was secured through donations.

Given that all visual arts centres involved in the Visual Arts Marketing Project have

‘Friends’ or ‘Arts Association’ membership schemes, it is recommended that all

consortium galleries extended the benefits of their scheme to the members of ‘sister’

schemes across the region.

Between them, the public galleries have Friends or equivalent membership schemes of

around 1000 people, the majority of whom are residents of the Highlands and Islands.

Developing reciprocal benefits for these schemes across organisations will add value to all

centre’s memberships, whilst strengthening the cohesion and cross-promotion between

public sector galleries.

Recommendations Responsibility

The region’s public galleries should extend the benefits of their respective Friends and membership schemes to all other visual arts consortium galleries’ members.

Visual Arts Consortium



[ Case Study ]

Gallery Friends Association [ Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland ]

Description: Bonhoga Gallery Friends Association is currently the only

truly proactively, independently-constituted Friends scheme belonging to a

public gallery in the Highlands and Islands.

Led by a small but hands-on committee, the scheme provides all the normal

benefits of a Friends group (i.e. shop and café discounts, invitation to preview events, priority events

information), but also organises a highly-successful workshop programme throughout the year,

employing local and visiting artists to run more than 20 sessions annually catering for all ages-ranges

and abilities. The workshops often link into, and therefore cross-promote, the gallery’s main

exhibitions programme.

The Friends play a voluntary role in staffing preview events at the centre, and run innovative

fundraising projects at Bonhoga Gallery, which also serves to generate access and participation with

the centre. Being independent from the gallery has allowed the Friends to access additional funding

sources for their activities, and matching funding from the Friends Association also helps with

Bonhoga Gallery funding applications. Indeed, the Friends are currently working with Shetland Arts

Trust to secure funding for a small second building on Bonhoga Gallery grounds for a more

permanent workshop, studio and curation space.

Bonhoga Gallery Friends Association has around 100 members, including a small number of life

members, and the workshops organised by the Friends run at an average of 80% of capacity.

Administration: Bonhoga Gallery staff provide administrative support and facilities for the

Friends, and help promote the membership to regular customers and buyers. Members are recorded

on a Microsoft Access spreadsheet that automates the process of printing monthly membership

renewal labels and letters. New and renewing Friends are always sent a small gift by the centre in

their initial mailing.

Development: The Friends are now exploring the

development of membership payments by standing

order to limit the administration work of the scheme,

and hope to produce a regular newsletter to further

develop communication with members.

Bonhoga Gallery Friends Association is now applying

to become a registered charity.

Weisdale Mill on the rural West Side of Shetland

is home to the Bonhoga Gallery



Part Six: [ Retail & Catering ]

RR ee tt aa ii ll ii nn gg

All of the centres involved in the Visual Arts Marketing Project rely, to some extent, on

revenue generated through retailing. Whilst each centre’s retail facilities are unique, the

most successful retailing operations across the sector are characterised by a number of

features:

• A more ‘familiar’ shop environment is conducive to comfortable browsing, as is a

low-key and unimposing cash or reception desk.

• Well-stocked, themed display areas, as opposed to more sparse or minimalist

displays, are proven to raise average visitor spend and repeat attendances.

• The stocking of products distinct to those of other local outlets ensures against

friction with other local businesses and provides distinct market positioning.

• The close integration of centre retailing facilities, through stock that reflects other

areas of the centre’s work, provides a more rounded overall product, and can be

more easily cross-promoted in-house and through centre promotional material.

• Centres have fluctuating customer profiles throughout the year, and the most

successful retailing facilities have recognised this, and change their stock accordingly

throughout the year to reflect changes in their customer base.

• The regular rotation of stock within small retail spaces encourages regular and

repeat attendance from local audiences.

• A proactive approach to capitalising upon periods of increased public spending,

such as Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day, has led to a trebling of average

customer spend in a number of centres at these times.

• Sound promotional practices through direct mail, local advertising, gift voucher

sales and stock launch events have all proved successful.

• Where staff are well-briefed and knowledgeable about stock and the artists or

makers represented in the retail areas, they are better equipped to make sales.



The average customer spend on retailing across the centres involved in the marketing

project is £1.35. This is remarkably low, and compares to an estimated average customer

spend in visitor attractions across Scotland of £2.12 per person*. Of course, visitor

attractions are more reliant on revenue raised by retailing activities for their long term

survival, and this discrepancy is also in part due to the lack of retail and display space

within many centres. However, it also reflects an underdevelopment of retailing practices

across the not-for-profit visual arts sector.

A good example of maximising the potential of a gallery’s shop can be found in Shetland,

where the management of Bonhoga Gallery takes a shrewd approach to retailing. The

centre’s shop concentrates on quality stock, including jewellery and art cards, alongside a

primarily sales-driven exhibition programme. With its rural, ‘out of the way’ location on

the island, the centre puts an emphasis on uniqueness, and the sourcing of new and exciting

design-led products from the major UK gift fairs to ensure that the centre can draw niche

markets from further afield on the island.

Bonhoga Gallery ensure a regular rotation of stock, and have developed exhibition preview

events to coincide with new stock preview events, thus integrating the retail and artistic

functions of the building. The centre also develops a local ‘buyers mailing list’, by

collecting the names and addresses of customers purchasing higher-value items through its

shop. The buyers list is also used to invite regular customers to preview events, and to

cross-promote the centre’s other facilities and services, such as the café and Bonhoga Gallery

Friends Association.

Over time, these policies have led to an increasing customer base for the shop itself,

making it an integral audience development tool for the centre as a whole, rather than a

secondary provision.

*1999 Visitor Attraction Monitor figures



SSttoocckk SSoouurrcciinngg

Whilst all the centres’ retailing operations are unique, with stock that is appropriate to

their differing functions, audience profiles and local competitors, there is enough cross-over

in the types of stock promoted by each centre to warrant a more cooperative approach to

merchandise sourcing. Indeed, given that it is in centres’ interests to position themselves as

unique from other local commercial outlets, the sourcing of original and unique stock

becomes increasingly important, and this is often ‘design-led’ stock.

A number of centres already attend national craft and gift fairs to source new stock lines,

but this is costly, and currently conducted in an ad-hoc and autonomous way by each

centre. There would be benefits for all consortium members if research visits to

appropriate trade fairs could be shared to ensure coverage of more fairs and, therefore,

access to more new lines. In this way, participating centres would attend key national craft

and gift fairs in rotation to research stock and collate information on stock lines to be

circulated to consortium members.

From such a collaborative approach, the consortium should explore the establishment of a

joint purchasing scheme for stock lines to take advantage of the economies of bulk buying.

The Euro has now also become increasingly important for consortium galleries given high

numbers of European visitors, and it is recommended that such a retailing consortium

could together explore systems for taking the currency in their respective organisations.

CCoommmmiissssiioonniinngg DDeessiiggnneerr SSttoocckk

Alongside the potential to share the sourcing of stock, there are opportunities for the

consortium centres to work together to develop original commissioned designer stock

from Scottish and international artists. The network of retail outlets actually makes this a

financially viable way to develop new and unique stock, whilst also supporting the area’s

artists and designers.


A retail consortium should be established to maximise attendance at key national craft and gift trade fairs, and to explore other retailing initiatives such as the commissioning of designer stock and acceptance of the Euro.




AArrttwwoorrkk ssaalleess

Artwork sales are a small but important revenue stream for many centres, although, with

commission charged by the public galleries on artwork sold set at around 35%, it is not the

most important component of many of the centre’s retail operations.

To ensure the accessibility of artwork and crafts sales in an area with little tradition of

collecting work, a number of centres have insisted upon artists and makers providing a

number of more affordable pieces of work for sale within exhibitions as part of their

contract with exhibitors. This has proved successful with local audiences, and offered

audiences a ‘way in’ to the collection of artwork.

Clear display material about the background and practice of exhibiting artists, alongside

demonstrations and talks by the artists themselves, can also provide a more personal touch

to the experience of art buying, and has encouraged sales.

Other centres have successfully used their café facilities as an additional space in which to

exhibit more saleable artwork, often by local artists, to complement a less commercial

programme in the main gallery. The exhibition of art in the more domestic café

environment has been useful in encouraging sales of work, as it can give audiences the time

and environment in which to imagine the artwork within their own homes.

Bonhoga Gallery’s ‘A5 exhibition’ is a good example of a project that has overcome

perceptional barriers to the purchase of artwork. For the exhibition, which was a

fundraiser for the gallery’s Friends Association, almost 400 numbered A5 clipframes were

distributed to local artists, community members and to a small number of eminent

nationally-recognised artists. All of these people were asked to create an unsigned piece of

art that could be mounted in the clipframe and then send it back to Bonhoga Gallery.

The returned clipframes, complete with artwork, were then exhibited at the centre, and all

marked up at a sales price of £10. Only once the exhibition was over, and most of the

artwork had been sold, did the centre reveal the artists behind each work, to show who had

bought the work of a local first-time amateur artist, and who had made a profitable

investment by purchasing a piece by a reputable professional. The project challenged

perceptions about the value and worth of the visual arts in a way that was engaging for

local audiences.



Finally, to develop the accessibility of art work purchases to local audiences, the interest-

free ‘loan purchase scheme’ currently being researched by the Scottish Arts Council should

be prioritised. There is huge demand for this scheme, and a number of regional

commercial galleries already run informal loan purchase schemes for customers, but this

can prove to be financially risky.

Given the emergence of a public fascination for interior design, not least through television

programmes such as ‘Changing Rooms’, there is currently increased interest in original

artwork. However, there is a need to develop access to costly art purchases in areas with

no current culture of purchasing original artwork. The existence of a network of galleries

already collaborating on marketing issues, make the Highlands and Islands an ideal area in

which to trial such a scheme.

CCaatteerriinngg

Seven of the organisations involved in the Visual Arts Marketing Project have cafés within

their centres. Whilst each of these catering facilities is unique in terms of the product and

experience that it offers, none contribute to the income of the centre in any substantial

way, and a number actually make small losses.

In some cases, these losses made by the café operations at centres have been written off as a

‘marketing expense’, and there is some evidence to support the argument that a gallery’s

café can be a tool for marketing development. From qualitative research undertaken

during the marketing project, it was estimated that one in three café patrons would not

described themselves as gallery attenders but, as a result of visiting the café, had gone on to

visit an exhibition or to participate in the centre’s visual arts programme in some other

way.

Indeed, a number of centres have managed to integrate their catering facilities into the

artisitic life of the centre in order to maximise this cross-over in audiences through the

displays of artwork in their café, tabletop exhibition promotional material and

interpretation and, in the case of Taigh Chearsabhagh, a monthly ongoing poetry sheet

which visitors are encouraged to add to during their time in the centre.



Part Seven: [ Research & Monitoring ]

The research practices of the participating organisations were found to be somewhat ad-

hoc, and most of the participating galleries had a clear but informal knowledge of local

attenders. However, few had undertaken substantial research or consultation with local

community members – especially non-attenders – to establish the reasons why a large

proportion of the community is effectively excluded from the gallery experience.

In particular, the comparatively slow turnaround of staff within these organisations has

added to a culture of informal and under-developed research and monitoring of audiences

and projects, and staff have instead developed a ‘feel’ for which marketing and

programming activities work with local communities and which do not. However, this is

a concerning situation if this knowledge cannot then be passed on in a more practical way

to future gallery programmers and staff with responsibilities for marketing.

During the course of the marketing project, recommendations were made on research

practices, and it is further recommended that project participants coordinate their research

so that results can be cross-referenced across consortium galleries.

MMoonniittoorriinngg tthhee VViissuuaall AArrttss MMaarrkkeettiinngg PPrroojjeecctt

Whilst recommendations have been made to each participating organisation on the

implementation and monitoring of the strategic marketing plans produced for them during

the course of the Visual Arts Marketing Project, a number of additional support

mechanisms are recommended below.


Advice and support for the implementation and monitoring of marketing plans will now be ‘mainstreamed’ through the local network of HIE-Marks Marketing Advisors.

HIE-Marks

HI~Arts have committed to evaluating the impact of the Visual Arts Marketing Project one year after its end, in August 2003.

HI~Arts

The visual arts consortium should continue to meet in order to develop the recommendations of the report.

Visual Arts Consorium /

HI~Arts


S e c t i o n F o u r :

[ Visual Arts Practitioners ]

This section contains an overview of the challenges faced by the region’s

visual arts practitioners, and explores the relationship between these

artists and the not-for-profit galleries of the Highlands and Islands. The

section goes on to recommend further ways of supporting the

development and promotion of artists from the region.


[ Section 4 – Visual Arts Practitioners ]

Part One: [ Sector Size & Characteristics ] The Economic Impact of the Arts in the Highlands and Islands 2001 study estimates that over

100 professional and semi-professional visual artists are reliant on the region’s galleries to

exhibit and sell their work. This excludes a large number of artists using their own open

studio spaces to sell work from.

Visual artists are known for their isolationism, and this is perhaps even truer for artists in

the rural Highlands and Islands. Few support networks exist locally for artists and there is

currently little culture of, or provision for, communities of artists coming together to work

in shared studio spaces, even in more populated areas.

It is now widely recognised that many talent visual artists work within the Highlands and

Islands. However, many artists struggle to make a viable income from their practice whilst

remaining within the region, the main reasons for this being:

• the comparative isolation of the area from key national and international markets

• the expense and practical difficulties of transporting work

• the existence of only small markets for contemporary work within the area

As a result, many fine artists who have either grown up in the Highlands and Islands, or

who have been drawn to the area to work, not least because of the staggering natural

beauty, seclusion and peace of the area, are forced to leave the Highlands and Islands

because they are unable to make a living in the area. This is particularly true for young

artists who leave the area to attend art school, and often do not return because of a

perceived lack of opportunity to progress their careers.



Part Two: [ Relationship with Public Galleries ]

The establishment of the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney in 1979, although welcomed by many

Orcadians at the time, is an example of a visual arts facility that came about as the result of

influences from outside of the community, rather than being an essentially ‘community-

driven’ development. However, in the years since 1979, due to its hugely prestigious and

nationally reknowned permanent collection, the Pier established Orkney as the natural

place for visual arts practitioners to come to work within the Highlands and Islands over

the last 20 years, and has therefore built up a large and talented visual arts community over

and above that of other areas.

However, in other areas, the public galleries have been relative late-comers to the scene. In

these areas, a handful of now well-known and nationally-recognised artists have established

themselves by developing links with the commercial gallery sector, both within and, more

often, outside of the area. In this way, most of these more established artists have ‘by-

passed’ the new not-for-profit visual arts sector in the Highlands and Islands, and links

between the public galleries and the most prolific artists in the area remain somewhat

weak.

If the public sector does not become more relevant to the development of the next

generation of emerging local artists, then these links will remain underdeveloped and, as a

result, the public galleries may not be representative of emerging visual artists in a way that

is authentic to the art form development of the area at grassroots level.

In some areas, the relationships between the public galleries and local visual arts

practitioners is an uneasy one, and many semi-professional and professional artists believe

that their local public visual arts facility should be doing more to support their practice and

professional development.

This has, on occasion, led to a lack of support for local public galleries from this key

constituency, which is detrimental given the importance of word of mouth within the

region and the lack of other niche audiences for the visual arts in the area. In other words,

if this key artistic constituency is not prepared to promote their local arts centre to visitors

to the area, it is less likely that others will.



Part Three: [ Support Mechanisms ]

Given the isolationism and dispersion of many artists throughout the Highlands and

Islands, providing relevant support mechanisms to practitioners is problematic.

Where localised visual arts associations do exist, these often fail to meet the varying needs

of a broad constituency of practitioners, which can often include hobbyists and

professionals, working in both the visual and applied arts. This lack of focus and quality-

control within many of groups and associations means that they are of little relevance in

the development and promotion of professional visual arts practice.

With the lack of any other localised formal channels of support for artists, local artists’

networks or cooperatives, many practitioners look to their local public gallery to provide a

supportive, developmental or advocacy role.

The fact that artists in a number of areas have been dissatisfied with the supporting role

that their local public arts centres have been able to play suggests that these galleries should

either look at ways to support and promote local artistic practice better, or communicate

the bounds of their remit more clearly to this key group.

However, some centres have been able to provide basic support and promotion for their

local artistic community. For example, An Tuireann maintains a portfolio detailing local

artists and their work within its gallery space, An Tobar produces and distributes a leaflet

promoting the work of Mull artists, and An Lanntair has showcased local artists’ work on

their website.

The Highland Council Exhibition Unit holds the largest commissioning register of over 100

practicing artists in the Highland region. However, this is held in hard copy, is not

effectively promoted, and is time-consuming for the Exhibitions Unit to keep up-to-date.

However, it is more often that artists look to public galleries to play a more time-

consuming advisory or mentoring role, which centres are not always best placed to

undertake. In addition, public galleries must ensure that they meet the needs of their

broader local constituencies before those of any single group. However, there is potential

to deliver such guidance and support mechanisms for local artists through a collaborative

approach across the regional consortium of public galleries.



IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn SSeerrvviicceess

One of the centres that is doing the most to support local artist practice and development is

art.tm in Inverness, particularly through its regular newsletter publication which offers

news and opportunities that are of particular relevance to Highland-based artists. The

newsletter is popular with the centre’s members, even beyond the Highland Council

region in which it operates.

Of all the centres, art.tm traditionally has more of a strategic remit for artist support, given

its roots as Highland Printmakers’ Workshop and, rather than each participating gallery

replicating the work of producing such a newsletter, it is recommended that art.tm broaden

their responsibility for artist support through the production of quarterly news and

opportunity bulletins for artists across the wider Highlands and Islands region.

Whilst there are many funding opportunities for visual artists in the region from local,

national and international agencies, artists find it difficult to get access to this information,

and one role of the newsletter would be to promote potential sources of funding.

Such a publication could be produced and distributed under the art.tm brand or, perhaps

more appropriately from the perspective of establishing closer relationships between artists

and their local public galleries, could be distributed and branded locally by each

participating gallery. In this way, the public galleries can establish a reputation as a more

relevant and trusted local source of support for artists’ practice.

A virtual community for the area’s visual artists was established as part of the Visual Arts

Marketing Project. This online forum now has some 68 members, including artists and

arts administrators, and it is recommended that this continues to be monitored and

managed through art.tm as an extension of their current work in artists’ support.


Art.tm should broaden its key role as an information provider for the visual arts sector by coordinating the production of a quarterly artists’ newsletter for distribution through consortium galleries.

art.tm / Visual Arts Consortium

The online forum for Highlands and Islands visual artists should continue, and the role for managing this forum should be taken on by art.tm.

art.tm



OOnnlliinnee PPrroommoottiioonn

The establishment of websites as a key medium for promotion and exposure for visual

artists has been especially beneficial to artists based in rural and remote areas, as it allows

them to compete on a more even playing field, alongside city based artists with greater

access to the broader visual arts marketplace.

The online AXIS national artists’ database is of particular use, as it allows Highlands and

Islands artists to display their work alongside their urban counterparts. In the early days of

AXIS, one-off free membership of the scheme was awarded to a number of local artists to

bolster the representation from Highlands and Islands artists on the system, through

funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Membership retention from this initially-

invited group of artists has been favourably high. The artists that report the greatest

success rate from AXIS, in terms of sales and commissions, have been those who regularly

change the images of their work displayed on the database.

However, there are now a growing number of semi-professional and professional

Highlands and Islands artists with no representation through AXIS, many of whom have

not signed up due to the cost of the scheme. It is therefore recommended that a second

scheme should be adopted in collaboration with AXIS, offering a number of free one-off

places on a trial basis to first-time artist members from the Highlands and Islands.

Current developments within the HI~Arts website also offer online opportunities to raise

the profile of the region’s visual arts. This website now receives nearly 2000 visitors a

week, and so is a key tool through which to develop promotional activities for the sector.

The site’s events guide and forthcoming Highlands and Islands online arts journal are both

means by which artists and galleries can raise the profile of their work and exhibitions.

There is also the potential to digitise the Highland Council’s artists register through the

proposed development of a HI~Arts online ‘artistes directory’. With additional

functionality for displaying images within such a directory, that will be developed as part

of a forthcoming crafts digitisation project, there will also be opportunities to provide

images of artists’ work alongside an artists’ statement. The register should be expanded to

include artists from across the Highlands and Islands region.




In partnership with the AXIS national artists’ database, the award of a number of free trial places on the database to first-time members from the Highlands and Islands should be explored.

HI~Arts / AXIS

The Highland Council’s artists’ register should be digitised and form the basis of an online database of visual arts practitioners in the region through the new technologies and functionality offered by the HI~Arts website.

Highland Council Exhibition Service

/ HI~Arts

HHiigghhllaanndd AArrttss

Through this collaborative initiative and others, such as the Highlands and Islands Visual

Arts Guide, the visual arts sector of the Highlands is now seen as a viable industry with a

professional approach that is equal to that of other industries. In the long term, it is hoped

that initiatives such as these will help to retain talented visual arts professionals in the

region.

The Highland Arts project, which was established in 1995 and ran for a total of five years

thanks to funding from the Highland Council and the European Regional Development

Fund, was a momentous achievement for the Highlands’ visual arts sector. The project

actively supported the sustainable economic viability of many of the region’s artists, by

representing their work professionally to nationwide visual arts audiences, through both

art fair attendance and the curation of major touring exhibitions from the region.

Highland Arts’ approach to professional support and development fits well with Highlands

and Islands Enterprise’s approach to growing businesses and developing skills. It is highly

recommended that the successes of Highland Arts be built upon now that the pilot project

is over, and be broadened to serve the whole of the Highlands and Islands region, to

further develop the business potential of the sector.

This should be achieved through the formation of an independent, not-for-profit agency.

To ensure a broad representation from artists across the region within the continued

project, it is further recommended that the public galleries already participating in the

region’s visual arts consortium become stakeholders for this agency, by acting as board

members or a steering group for their work, and as a selection panel for represented artists.



[ Case Study ]

Highland Arts [ Promotion of Highland Artists ]

Challenge: It was recognised that the business potential of both individual visual arts practitioners,

and the visual arts sector as a whole, was underdeveloped in the Highlands. This was primarily due

to the inaccessibility of prime visual arts marketplaces to Highland-based artists, a lack of accessible

and relevant training and advice in business and promotion for practitioners, and limited

coordination for the sector as a whole.

Response: Highland Arts was set up as a pilot project in 1995 by the Highland Council Exhibition

Unit, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Highlands & Islands

Objective 1 Programme (1994 to 1999) and by Highland Council. The Exhibitions Unit also contracted

Flick Hawkins of Rhue Art (Ullapool) to help deliver the project, who had substantial experience

with visual arts promotion through her managerial role to artist husband, James Hawkins.

The objectives of the project were:

to link one person visual arts businesses

to raise the profile and develop the identity of the region’s visual arts sector locally and nationally

to encourage the export of the Highland-based visual arts product

to develop the earning power of Highland-based visual arts practitioners and small businesses

Highland Arts set out to achieve these goals primarily by idenitifying emerging local artists, and

presenting their work professionally at national art fairs, including the London Contemporary Art

Fair, the Affordable Art Fair and the Glasgow Art Fair. The origination of these shows, alongside the

production of quality brochures representing their stable of artists, was overseen by Highland Arts.

Outcomes: Throughout the life of the project, between 1995 and 2000, it is estimated that

Highland Arts promoted 185 Highland-based artists through art fair attendance and by originating

exhibitions for tour both nationally and internationally (including ‘Counting Sheep’ and ‘River Deep

Mountain High’), thus safeguarding their professional practice within the Highland region. Many of

the emerging artists represented by the project also benefited by having their work displayed

alongside more established and eminent Highlands artists, thus giving credence to their practice.

As a result, many of the artists represented by Highland Arts found more permanent commercial

gallery representation and outlets in UK cities. The Highland-based galleries representing these

artists were also helped by the project as more demand was created for these artists’ work. Through

sustained attendance at major art fairs, Highland Arts has become a recognisable quality ‘brand’.

ERDF funding for the project came to an end in 2000.



The agency would research into the most appropriate national and international arts fairs

for the artists that they represent, and put together strong applications for stands at art

fairs. As well as presenting emerging artists’ work at art fairs and creating professional

print material on their featured artists, the agency would adopt a ‘grooming’ role for their

stable of artists, offering advice on the presentation and pricing of work, contracts,

portfolios, and other aspects of professional practice.

It is anticipated that such an agency will be able to work with up to a dozen artists

simultaneously, although an objective of the agency will be to place artists with national

and international commercial galleries in their own right, thereby creating vacancies within

the agency for work with new artists.

However, there should also be benefits of the project to the wider visual arts practitioners

in the region. To this effect, it is recommended that the agency establishes a contractual

obligation with the artists that it represents to provide a mentoring and training role to the

next generation of emerging artists in their areas, in order to invest the benefit of their

experience back into the region’s developing visual arts sector. In this way, the agency will

fulfill a supportive role locally, and be closely allied with the public gallery network.

Initial start-up funding will be required to establish such an agency, to recruit emerging

artists to the scheme, and to undertake the required research into appropriate art fairs for

the agency to participate in. However, through the commissions on work sold at fairs,

Highland Arts were able to break even or even generate a profit through attendance at art

fairs and, in this way, it is foreseeable that the work of this agency may become financially

self-sustaining over time. The agency would source funding for their activities through key

agencies and trusts, including Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Arts Council.

Of course, such an agency will need a name that is representative of the whole region,

rather than just the Highlands. However, having already established the Highland Arts

brand with the art-buying public, it is recommended that the new agency be a recognisable

reincarnation of the previous project. In this respect, it may be of benefit for this agency

to take on the branding developed by the ‘Highlands and Islands Visual Arts’ Guide, which

would also associate this agency with this successful publication.



VViissuuaall AArrttss FFoorruumm

The annual Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Forum has become increasingly popular, and

offers many otherwise isolated artists opportunities to receive information and advice from

trainers, to ask questions of key agencies, and to share the challenges and opportunities of

working in the rural Highlands and Islands. It is possibly most important as a rare

networking opportunity and a chance for artists to meet their peers.

Held in January 2002 by HI~Arts and the Highland Council, the last forum was the best-

attended to date, with 74 delegates present, and another 15 on the waiting list for the event.

However, the siting of the forum in and around the Inverness area has limited attendance

from many of the islands and areas such as Argyll, even with the availability of travel

bursaries from HI~Arts.

Given the rising attendance at the Visual Arts Forum, it is recommended that the potential

for holding a number of more localised fora across the region be explored. There is also

the possibility of collaboration with the aforementioned agency on the event’s delivery,

whose represented artists may be able to play a mentoring role at fora.


A not-for-profit visual arts agency should be established to continue the work of Highland Arts, by presenting the work of emerging Highlands and Islands artists at national and international art fairs.

Highland Arts / Visual Arts Consortium

The potential to deliver the popular annual Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Forum at a local level should be explored.

HI~Arts



S e c t i o n F i v e :

[ Sector Marketing Development ]

This section explores the wider cross-sector promotional activities that

have been and can be undertaken to raise the profile of the visual arts of

the Highlands and Islands, both within and out with the region.


[ Section 5 – Sector Marketing Development ]

Part One: [ Profile ]

The establishment and promotion of the visual arts as a viable sector in the Highlands and

Islands has obvious benefits. As a recognised and sustainable sector with the potential to

support many jobs and to generate income for the region, it is more likely to attract

inward investment at all levels from local and national agencies, whilst establishing greater

recognition and acceptance from local communities.

In addition, a cohesive and well-coordinated visual arts sector that is a sum of its

consistuent parts, can also achieve more in terms of raising its profile at a national and

international level, thereby establishing an export market for its artistic product and skills,

whilst encouraging additional niche and cultural tourism to the Highlands and Islands.

A number of cross-sector initiatives have already been undertaken that help to establish

this holistic view of an otherwise dispersed sector.

HHiigghhllaannddss aanndd IIssllaannddss VViissuuaall AArrttss GGuuiiddee

The first edition of the Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Guide was published in 1999

through funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Arts Council. It

proved so popular with local and touring visual arts audiences, and with the galleries

represented in the Guide, that a subsequent edition was published in 2001.

It is highly recommended that the biennial publication of the Visual Arts Guide is

continued. However, with current costs of producting the Guide at over £11,000,

alongside £3,500 distribution costs over two years and given the unlikelihood of receiving

substantial further financial support from past funders, it is inevitable that the funds for

future publications will need to be sought through private sources and sponsorship.

However, given that the Guide is now well-established and has a proven record of success,

it is more likely that revenue can be secured both from galleries featured within the Guide,

and from private sponsorship. Therefore, as part of HI~Arts’ Audience Development

Project, sponsorship for a third edition of the Guide will be sought in 2003.



[ Case Study ]

Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Guide

The Guide: In a collaborative project initiated by HI~Arts, a Highlands and

Islands Visual Arts Guide publication was produced. The aims of the Guide were

to raise awareness of the scale, diversity and quality of the visual arts sector of the

Highlands and Islands both internally and externally, to cross-promote the area’s

many galleries to current gallery attenders, and to encourage the many visitors to

the area to attend galleries and go on ‘gallery trails’.

The first edition of the free Guide was published in 1999, and 35,000 copies were

distributed over two years through the region’s galleries, arts centres, visitor

attractions, and at key arts venues and tourist centres in the Central Belt.

Freepost feedback forms in every Guide were used to monitor audience reaction

to the publication and to collect customer data with which to promote future

visual arts events. In addition, readers were able to request to join the mailing list

of up to four galleries represented in the Guide.

The publication was funded by the Scottish Arts Council Audience and Sales

Development Unit, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and HI~Arts.

Outcomes: Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback from visual arts audiences and participating

galleries, a second edition was published in 2001 as part of the Visual Arts Marketing Project. At this

time, the Guide was also made available to download from the HI~Arts website in sections divided

by geographical area. The most popular section of the online Guide has been Orkney with 200

downloads. In all, the online Guide has accounted for 1,500 downloads from the site in 2001.

94% of respondents returning Guide feedback forms (nearly 300 individuals) have asked to receive

future editions of the Guide, and a further 39% have submitted their email address to receive

information. The most requests received for further gallery information were for art.tm, The Ceilidh

Place (Ullapool), Kilmorack Gallery, Pier Arts Centre, and An Tuireann.

According to the feedback forms received, the average age of Guide reader is 44, although the ages

ranged from 15 to 79 years, and the majority of readers (64%) are female. Readership is split evenly

between visitors to the region and local audiences. Respondents had spent over £31,000 between

them (or an average of £103 each) on artwork found at galleries within the Guide.

There have also been unforeseen benefits of the Guide, most notable for local visual arts practitioners

who use the publication to source potential outlets for their work.

Visual Arts Guides 1999-2000 (top)

2001-2002 (below)



In addition to a published Visual Arts Guide, it is further recommended that an online

dynamic version of the Guide be produced. This would also ensure the continued ‘virtual’

presence of a Guide, should funding not be secured for a further publication in 2003.

The online Guide would be fully searchable by region, and could be integrated into

HI~Arts’ online events guide, which would enable browsers to view not only the regions

galleries, but also any current exhibitions that were being held in those galleries. An online

Guide could also be updated regularly to include new galleries and studios as they develop.

Furthermore, the costs involved in establishing such a service would be small in

comparison to the publication.

There are further opportunities to provide similar cross-region approaches to the

promotion of artists’ studio and workshop facilities in the Highlands and Islands, and these

should also be established online and in hard copy as a resource for both local practitioners

and artists visiting the area.


Funding should be sought for a third edition of the Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Guide publication in 2003.

Audience Development

Project

An online dynamic version of the Visual Arts Guide should be established. Audience

Development Project

Information on artists’ studios and workshop facilities of the region should be promoted both online and in hard copy.

HI~Arts / Audience

Development Project



MMeeddiiaa PPrrooffiillee

An objective of the Visual Arts Marketing Project was the development of media coverage

for the visual arts of the Highlands and Islands. It was suggested that this could be achieved

through the development of a visual arts festival for the region, to collectively raise the

profile of the sector.

Whilst a visual arts festival would serve this purpose, little appetite exists for the

development of a purely visual arts-based festival on the ground or within artistic

communities, as it is felt that the Highlands and Islands are too large a geographic area to

make a visible and effective impact with such a project. However, a number of arts

festivals across the area have not developed visual arts aspects to their programmes, and it is

felt that greater potential exists for the development of the visual arts within existing

regional festivals, and this is the preferred option amongst regional galleries.

As an alternative method of raising media coverage of the area’s visual arts, a press

familiarisation tour was conducted during the marketing project, which successfully

brought a number of national and arts journalists to a number of visual arts centres in

Inverness, Skye and the Western Isles. Additional funding has already been secured for a

second tour, this time to the northern Highlands, the Orkney and Shetland Isles. This

tour will be conducted in autumn 2002.

Finally, it is recommended that the centralised distribution of exhibition listings to the

national media be explored as an addition to HI~Arts current online listings services.


Key agencies and galleries should play an advocacy and facilitating role for the inclusion of visual arts in established arts festivals of the Highlands and Islands.

HI~Arts / Visual Arts Consortium

A second press familiarisation tour of the Highlands and Islands will be carried out in Autumn 2002 to visual arts venues in the Northern Highlands and the Northern Isles.


Project

Central and coordinated distribution of exhibition listings to the national media and listings press should be explored.


Project



[ Case Study ]

Highlands and Islands Media Familiarisation Tour

Challenge: The visual arts of the Highlands and Islands have a low

profile in the national and arts media. Travel budgets for national

media arts coverage often do not allow reviewers to cover exhibitions

at venues in the far north of Scotland and the Isles. In addition, as

many arts journalists are not familiar with the relatively new gallery

developments in the Highlands and Islands, there is limited

knowledge of the scale or standard of provision for the visual arts of

the region.

Response: In November 2001, as part of the Visual Arts Marketing Project, a media

familiarisation tour of the area’s visual arts venues was coordinated for national and arts press.

The tour was designed to optimise the coverage of the area’s visual arts by visiting a number of

galleries in one trip, and to minimise the costs and administration for participating journalists by

taking advantage of group travel discounts and coordinating the tour on their behalf.

Key national and arts journalists were recruited to the three day tour, which visited eight

galleries – both public and private – in Inverness, the Isle of Skye and the Western Isles.

Outcomes: Media coverage generated by the tour included two prime time BBC Radio Scotland

slots, two national television news items, one full-page article in [AN] Magazine, and exhibition

reviews in the national press. The tour represented a welcome opportunity for the journalists,

some of whom had never visited the centres or areas covered in the tour before.

However, perhaps more importantly, the centres visited

on the tour, and indeed other galleries in the region, have

retained contact with these key media members and

generated additional media coverage for their work.

The strategic aims of the tour corresponded well to those

of Highlands and Island Enterprise, the Highlands of Scotland

Tourist Board and Western Isles Tourist Board, all of whom

financially supported the tour. The costs of the tour were

negligible in comparison to the editorial coverage that it

stimulated in the national press.

A feature from [AN] Magazine

generated by the tour

Press members hear about visual arts

developments at Skye’s Gaelic College, Sabhal Mor Ostaig, from Donnie Munro



Part Two: [ The Bigger Picture ]

NNaattiioonnaall aanndd IInntteerrnnaattiioonnaall LLiinnkkss

A number of public galleries in the Highlands and Islands have already established

international links. For instance, Bonhoga Gallery has organised exhibitions of Shetland

artists’ work in Scandinavia, An Lanntair toured their ‘From the Land’ exhibition

extensively in Canada, and An Tuireann are currently collaborating on projects with an

Irish gallery. Furthermore, the aforementioned independent artists’ agency will further

develop networks and promote the region’s visual arts both nationally and internationally.

Between them, the public galleries of the visual arts consortium are well-placed to develop

a range of international contacts. To this effect, a coordinated approach to this

international networking could be adopted here, with each public gallery developing links

with overseas visual arts organisations on behalf of the whole consortium, potentially

through a scheme of ‘partnership’ or ‘twinning’ with overseas galleries.

In addition to international links, there are also benefits to developing a closer relationship

with public galleries in other parts of the UK. Given the relatively low turnover and

geographic isolation of key gallery staff, especially on the islands, there may also be

opportunities to develop short exchange schemes for certain artistic directors, potentially

in the role of ‘guest curator’, within other UK galleries.

PPrreessttiiggee

Over the next few years, there is huge potential to develop the profile and prestige of the

visual arts in the Highlands and Islands. There are opportunities to work more closely

with the National Galleries of Scotland to address a number of gaps in provision. The

extension of this key agency’s work to the Highlands and Islands will also help to raise

local advocacy and the perceived prestige of the sector.

The InvernessHighland bid to become ‘Capital of Culture’ in 2008 also raises ambitions for

the sector, and one aim of the bid is to secure a major national gallery with a permanent

collection as a central resource for the area by 2008. There is no reason why further

ambitious projects, such as a national art fair for the region, should not follow.


S e c t i o n S i x :

[ Executive Summary ]

This section summarises the main findings of the report, and presents a

recommended exit strategy for the Visual Arts Marketing Project.


[ Section 6 – Executive Summary ]

Part One: [ Conclusions ]

• There is an absence of a tradition of gallery-going and art purchasing across the

Highland and Islands, and therefore the visual arts of the region are in their infancy.

• The visual arts of the region is now a growing sector, characterised by numerous

‘micro-businesses’. These galleries and studios currently attract over 600,000 visits

per year.

• The tourist market is extremely important for the visual arts sector, and accounts

for two-thirds of attendances at the region’s galleries. However, this audience is

seasonal, which leads to huge fluctuations in attendance levels across the year.

• Small local catchment populations mean that the region’s public galleries cannot

rely on ‘niche’ audiences for their work, and must become more inclusive to a

wider local constituency.

• Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool in the rural communities of

the Highlands and Islands, and it is essential for public galleries to establish local

advocacy for their work.

• Regional public galleries have been able to involve first-time local audiences in the

contemporary visual arts by creating an otherwise-missing context for this work.

This context has been established through local culture and heritage, more familiar

media such as photography, and a supportive educational ‘product surround’.

• Organisations that have embarked upon avant garde programming without this

support or context have lost local support for their work.

• In terms of statistics, the rural public galleries of the Highlands and Islands have a

greater success rate at local market penetration than their urban counterparts.

• The lack of staff with specific responsibility for education in a number of public

galleries, has limited their potential to develop partnerships with schools.

• Good practice exists across public sector galleries in terms of the marketing that is

intrinsic to their programming and project work. However, extrinsic marketing



practices (such as branding, generic publicity material, press relations and

distribution) are underdeveloped.

• Likewise, research and monitoring practices across the sector are somewhat

informal.

• Opportunities for closer collaboration between visual arts consortium members

exist in a number of areas – most notably in retail development and local artist

support.

• Given little tradition for original artwork purchases in the Highlands and Islands,

the visual arts sector must work to establish local access to purchases, potentially

through an interest-free ‘purchase loan’ scheme.

• The relationship between not-for-profit galleries and the artists within their local

communities is underdeveloped and strained in some areas, and a significant

number of artists feel that these galleries should be doing more to support and

develop local artistic practice and promotion.

• Projects such as Highland Arts and the Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Guide have

been key factors in raising the profile and prestige of the area’s visual arts as a

cohesive and professional sector.



Part Two: [ Exit Strategy ]

[ Visual Arts Marketing Project Monitoring & Evaluation ]


Advice and support for the implementation and monitoring of marketing plans will now be ‘mainstreamed’ through the local network of HIE-Marks Marketing Advisors.

HIE-Marks

HI~Arts have committed to evaluating the impact of the Visual Arts Marketing Project one year after its end, in August 2003.

HI~Arts

The visual arts consortium should continue to meet in order to develop the recommendations of the report.

Visual Arts Consorium /

HI~Arts

[ Cross-sector Marketing Initiatives ]


Funding should be sought for a third edition of the Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Guide publication in 2003.


Project

An online dynamic version of the Visual Arts Guide should be established. Audience

Development Project

Key agencies and galleries should play an advocacy and facilitating role for the inclusion of visual arts in established arts festivals of the Highlands and Islands.

HI~Arts / Visual Arts Consortium

A second press familiarisation tour of the Highlands and Islands will be carried out in Autumn 2002 to visual arts venues in the Northern Highlands and the Northern Isles.


Project

Central and coordinated distribution of exhibition listings to the national media and listings press should be explored.


Project

The region’s public galleries should extend the benefits of their respective Friends and membership schemes to all other visual arts consortium galleries’ members.


A retail consortium should be established to maximise attendance at key national craft and gift trade fairs, and to explore other retailing initiatives such as the commissioning of designer stock and acceptance of the Euro.




[ Artist Support and Promotion ]


Art.tm should broaden its key role as an information provider for the visual arts sector by coordinating the production of a quarterly local artists’ newsletter for distribution through consortium galleries.

art.tm / Visual Arts Consortium

The online forum for Highlands and Islands visual artists should continue, and the role for managing this forum should be taken on by art.tm.

art.tm

In partnership with the AXIS national artists’ database, the award of a number of free trial places on the database to first-time members from the Highlands and Islands should be explored.

HI~Arts / AXIS

The Highland Council’s artists’ register should be digitised and form the basis of an online database of visual arts practitioners in the region through the new technologies and functionality offered by the HI~Arts website.

Highland Council Exhibition Service

/ HI~Arts

A not-for-profit visual arts agency should be established to continue the work of Highland Arts, by presenting the work of emerging Highlands and Islands artists at national and international art fairs.

Highland Arts / Visual Arts Consortium

The potential to deliver the popular annual Highlands and Islands Visual Arts Forum at a local level should be explored.

HI~Arts

Information on artists’ studios and workshop facilities of the region should be promoted both online and in hard copy.

HI~Arts / Audience

Development Project


S e c t i o n S e v e n :

[ Appendices ]


[ Section 7 – Appendices ]

Part One: [ Reference & Related Reading ]

All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture & Education (Report to the Secretary of State for

Education and Employment and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport), National

Advisory Committee on Creativity and Cultural Education, DfEE Publications, 1999

Building Bridges – Guidance for Museums and Galleries on Developing New Audiences, Jocelyn

Dodd and Richard Sandell, Museums and Galleries Commission, 1998

By Popular Demand – A Strategic Analysis of the Market Potential for Museums and Art

Galleries in the UK, Dr Stuart Davies, Museums and Galleries Commission, 1994

Crossing the Line – Extending Young People’s Access to Cultural Venues, John Harland & Kay

Kinder (Editors), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1999

The Economic and Social Impact of the Arts in the Highlands and Islands (Report), Independent

Northern Consultants, September 2001

Marketing the Visual Arts – Challenge and Response, Professor Leslie W. Rodger, Scottish Arts

Council Publications, 1987

On the Edge – Culture and the Arts in Remote and Rural Locations, Professor Anne Douglas

(Editor) et al, RGU Faculty of Design, Gray’s School of Art, 2000

The Scottish Abstract of Statistics, Government Statistical Service, 1998

Scottish Arts Council Audience and Sales Development Overview, Tim Baker and Heather

Maitland, 2002

Selling the Contemporary Visual Arts, Gerri Morris, Report for the North West Arts Board and

the Arts Council of England, 1991

Social Trends 30, Government Statistical Service, 2000

To Sell Art, Know Your Market (A Survey of Visual Arts and Fine Craft Buyers), Australia

Council, 199X


[ Section 7 – Appendices ]

Part Two: [ Credits ]

I am grateful to all the staff at HI~Arts for providing encouragement and administrative

support throughout the project, to the hard-working staff and board members of the

residency organisations, who never failed to be welcoming and facilitating throughout, and

to the many artists and arts administrators that I met during the project, who all gave their

time so generously.

Marcus J Wilson

31 July 2002

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Documents

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