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Perthshire Open Studios Special

 We are going to use our language school blog to show off some of the amazing individual artists we met during this year’s Perthshire Open Studios. 

However, here in this first blog, we thought we’d take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

What are the factors which make Perthshire so good for art?

Is it because it is a great place to be an artist?

We’ve picked 5 factors which have helped it all happen, highlighting some of the behind the scenes support that has aided Perthshire’s creative makers in various ways.

The first reason is about as romantic as you can get. Others are practical or beautifully ingenious. (Which is fitting as making art is a combination of the romantic and the pragmatic, of inspiration underpinned by practical techniques).  

Perhaps you are an international culture-lover planning your next holiday to Scotland,  or a UK artist looking to relocate.

This blog is for you.

Read on for a practice exercise at the end!

Perthshire Open Studios 

Today, Perthshire artists are gathering breath after an intensive couple of weeks participating in Perthshire Open Studios.

Some will have shows to take down. Others will have orders to fill (such as framing or printing to do). 

For artists, it has been a busy time presenting themselves to the public. Many are introverts and don’t love repeatedly explaining their artworks’ concepts, or demonstrating the techniques and processes that lie behind their production. 

For the exhibition organisers – the last two weeks have been the culmination of years of work. 

Producing an event of this scale involves committee-based planning, drives to generate funding, and negotiations to secure participating venues. Not to mention the enormous amount of work that goes into publicising such an event.

Perthshire open studios artist image
Perthshire Open Studios publicity image – used with permission
Immersion in English for Creatives 2024 cover with leaves

 English Immersion for Artists Week

Perthshire Open Studios graphic for blog post

5 Reasons Why Perthshire is So Good for Art

Natural standing stone known locally as the ‘Praying Hands of Mary’, Glen Lyon.

01: The Perthshire Landscape is Inspirational

Let’s start with the romantic!

Perthshire is an astonishingly beautiful region with a scattered but significant rural economy of artists, artisans and speciality producers either harvesting a living directly from the land and landscape or benefiting creatively from being immersed in stunning landscape.

The artists and makers sell to a local market that is heavily tourism-based  (although also increasingly to a global marketplace).

Perthshire has a reputation for pure, quality agricultural produce and a kind of authentic craft and skill-based art that is physically and/or emotionally linked to the land and landscape.

Tourists are attracted by the landscape and their holiday is enriched by the quality of the artworks around them. The artists need tourists – and Perthshire tourism needs qood quality and attractive art.

Featured Artist Angus Ross

This year, Perthshire Open Studios had Angus Ross as its featured artist.

Ross is an established, sought-after furniture maker and someone who perfectly epitomises the synergy between the Perthshire landscape and art and crafts that so many Perthshire artists have in their heart.

He literally creates from the landscape, listening to what the wood tells him,  “transforming local trees into exquisite furniture“.

Angus Ross Birnam Perthshire Open Studios blog
Detail from the installation of Angus Ross, POS Featured Artist 2021 at Birnam Arts. Even this Arts Centre has a large panoramic window showing off the local landscape alongside sculptural installations. 

 

 

” It can be thought of as a handshake with wood in that both the maker and the timber bring their experience and each bend is slightly different.”

Angus Ross
for the Perthshire Open Studios Website, 2021

02: The Perthshire Open Studios Events and Network

This annual event absolutely has to be near the top of anyone’s list of reasons why Perthshire is a great place for art. 

In the past, the very rural nature of Perthshire makers’ lifestyles had people working quite independently from each other. Even without knowledge of each other’s presence.

Since 2008, Perthshire Open Studios has been linking up this local talent and promoting it. POS not only gives artists an important annual opportunity to sell their works to new audiences, it also connects artists with peers, and builds a network to share resources.

Annually, around 200 artists and makers across Perthshire, Kinross-Shire and other neighbouring counties open their studios to the general public, making it one of the highlights in the calendar of Arts events in Scotland.

Learn English in Scotland During Perthshire Open Studios

By the way, if you are a culture lover, every September our language school offers an immersion holiday around visiting these artists in their studios. 

 

A visit to Barry Allan Scott’s Perthshire studio

03. (Nationwide) An Enabling, Flexible Legal Structure

Ok so it’s not sexy, but it should be noted that Perthshire Open Studios is a Community Interest Company  (CIC) and not-for-profit organisation.

This is an incredibly smart legal business structure that has been in existence in the UK since 2004.

Essentially, CIC structure means any profits made get redirected back into the business to further empower it to help its community.

A CIC doesn’t have shareholders. It has a committee and a board of directors who are responsible for ensuring that the business benefits its members (artists in the case of POS) and its wider community (Perthshire). 

The CIC structure is behind many art organisations in the UK which is one of the reasons we have such good and varied artists opportunities.

It also makes it quite easy for small grassroots groups to set up on their own, begin small and grow. 

CICs Contribute to the Economy

Perthshire Open Studios has grown to a size where it attracts international and national tourism, generates income for participating artists and contributes to the local economy.

The importance of the creative economy is constantly underestimated. 

Nationwide, Scotland’s creative industries contribute more than £5 billion to the Scottish economy every year. (Scottish Government website).

The creative sector showcases how well CICs can work.

Just imagine if more private sectors took on CIC status and priorities – and more countries offered CIC status.

It’s absolutely world changing – one community at a time.

 

“Perthshire Open Studios makes a significant contribution to the local economy and generates local community art and craft events throughout the year”.

 

Perthshire Open Studios website

 

04: Growbiz & Perthshire Artisans 

Recently, a network called Perthshire Artisans has been set up by business development gurus Growbiz.

Growbiz aid all kinds of businesses across rural Highland and Perthshire by providing business help, advice and resources for free.

Pre-COVID, this included organising peer-to-peer events for different sectors, including regular meet-ups for the creative sector.

One of the cleverest Growbiz strategies was offering food (like we do!). Food lures folks to travel rural distances when it would be easier to stay at home on a damp night. Food unites participants in conversation in a relaxed way,  making every person battling for their business feel a little more relaxed, refreshed and empowered by the generosity and friendliness of the evenings.

Conversations were powerful: ideas were generated and collaborations were fruitful.

Through listening to the participating artist and artisans during the creative peer meets – a new network took shape and is currently in its second phase of launching.

Perthshire Artisans aims to market and publicise Perthshire’s makers as a united concept. 

They may even admin for them.  Outsourcing essential business tasks frees up time for the makers to get on with what they are so skilled at – making. Out sourcing admin is the best time investment a maker can put into their business.

Artists Share Resources

For example, in one of the start-up meetings, the time lost in posting and packaging was discussed.

Instead of having 50 artists losing hours in a post office queue every month, could this be outsourced as a service? Packaging up artworks too?   The economies of scale make this a very good idea but with such variations between artworks (weight/presentation/packaging) the logistics still need figured out. (Different solutions are currently being trialled).

The overall concept of promoting quality Perthshire artists as a whole, within one single e-commerce website is fantastic and a very healthy thing for the whole of the Perthshire tourist economy.

 

Conversations were powerful: ideas were generated and collaborations were fruitful.

Ruth, 2021

05: Perthshire Creates & Culture Perth and Kinross

These two bodies are both administered by Perth and Kinross council.

One aspect of Perthshire Creates was an early network attempting to link artists together, but the need for this is now getting met by the combination of POS and Perthshire Artisans.

However, it is still a go-to resource for citizens wanting to find an art class. 

Perthshire Creates and the wider Culture Perth and Kinross organisation have an online database of venues and workshops and classes.

Perthshire Makers Spaces

Perhaps most interestingly they also manage ‘Maker Spaces,’ which have inserted cutting-edge technology into certain local libraries across rural Perthshire.

Any library user can book and use Adobe Creative Cloud, an Ultimaker3 3D printer, iPad based 3D scanning equipment robotics and coding equipment and a A3 large format scanner.

Not bad for rural Scotland!

Commercial use is charged but I believe at the time of writing that personal use is still free. 

This investment in the creative potential of our communities is absolutely remarkable.

Not only can anyone local have access to new tools. It will further attract creative professionals from urban areas who previously were bound to cities because their profession required access to this kind of thing. 

 

 

“With hundreds of creatives to discover across the area (5,286 km²), it can be a geographical challenge to stay informed, yet this is also what makes it so exciting.  It may be music, visual arts, dance, theatre, creative writing, spoken word, poetry, film, contemporary craftsmanship and more that interests you, discovering the creative and cultural diversity where you might not be expecting to, all add to the quality of living in or visiting Perth & Kinross.”

 

Perthshire Creates Website

Bonus Reason | Perthshire Language School

Ahem, that’s us! 

Blue Noun are a specialist English language school (we prefer ‘language hub’) which offers mini-groups and individuals English language training.

We are here for culture lovers and creatives alike. We believe that culture is great for language immersion. 

Our English language school is based in Crieff, Perthshire for the very reason of being able to offer our language guests quality encounters with talented artist-makers across this region.

Our guests practice professional English language skills with local creatives in real immersive, professional contexts.

Further Information

Helping You Improve in English

There is a broad range of topics in our language school blog, to help you explore Scotland and learn English (just like our holidays!).

You might want to read about a recent art exhibition with a difference (the art was made by musicians, not artists!).

 

Learn English and Art | When the Music Paused

 

Find out about Perthshire Open Studios here.

Discover the beautiful works by Angus Ross here.

Read about the company structure of a CIC here.

Find the Perthshire Artisans e-commerce store and website here.

Visit Growbiz here.

Discover Perthshire Creates here.

Check out the amazing traditional letterpress Quarto Press here.

 Your Blue Noun English Language Challenge is:

“Dream workplace…”

 If you could choose your perfect studio, would you pick a city or the countryside?

What would you like to have

What must you have?

 

Notice that in the answer to would you use the infinitive of the verb.

Eg. I would like to be surrounded by trees. I would like to work alone.

 

When you use must, just use the stem of the verb. 

 

Eg. I must have internet access. There must be a regular bus.

Write as much as you like, and if you would like us to check &  correct your English, write CP  (correct please) at the end.

 

Live language learning!

 

 

“Dream workplace…”