Media Release: Scotland’s remote communities teach arts sector new digital ways of connecting with audiences

AmbITion Scotland and Shetland Arts host Glo/cal roadshow and live webcast

Arts, culture and heritage sectors converge on Scotland’s most remote communities to learn new ways to digitally connect with national and global participants and audiences  

Mareel, Lerwick: Thursday 18th October, 2012

Attend the AmbITion Scotland Roadshow in person: 10:00 – 16:15

Live online video webcast: 14:00 – 15:45

Full details & mailing list sign-up: www.getambition.com

ON Thursday 18 October, 2012, AmbITion Scotland will host Glo/cal: digitally connecting global participants and audiences to local arts and culture projects – a roadshow and live webcast from the UK’s most northerly music, cinema and creative industries centre. Mereel, Lerwick.

At Glo/cal, those working in the arts, culture and heritage sectors will be introduced to some of Scotland’s most remote artistic projects and cultural organisations who are using digital tools to create global reach, scale, and access to their local work; engaging audiences at a local, national and global level.

This is the first official AmbITion Scotland Roadshow of 2012, and the first-ever conference at the newly opened Mareel.

AmbITion Scotland lead consultant, Hannah Rudman, explains: “By attending the Glo/cal session either in person or online, arts, culture and heritage sector professionals will get to see and hear about inspiring ways in which some of Scotland’s most remote communities are successfully implementing Glo/cal principles through utilising digital tools.

“The practical advice on how digital tools can help the wider sector deepen participation and engagement with global and local audiences digitally, will be invaluable.

“Attendees will also get an insight into how these communities are creating living archives and how they have also devolved – in some cases – programming into the hands of audiences through participation.”

For Highlanders and Islanders, there’s an opportunity to come along to the AmbITion Scotland Roadshow at Mareel to experience hands-on workshops in the morning, share lunch and then be the live audience for the Glo/cal webcast during the afternoon session.

Featured speakers include:

  • Lucy Conway and Stef Lewandowski talking about Eigg Box – Making the Remote Central
  • Cape Farewell Sea Change artist Stephen Hurrel on Mapping the Sea, Barra
  • Gwilym Gibbons of Shetland Arts and colleagues from Sixty Degrees North on hosting in-house webcasts and considering how the digital platform for live traditional music can extend participation and engagement

Since October 2011 Lucy Conway has been developing Eigg Box. Planned to open in 2015, Eigg Box will act as a cultural enterprise hub, bringing together local creative businesses with artists from around the world.

Conway says: “Eigg Box turns on its head the notion that a centre of entrepreneurship and creativity needs to be at the centre of population. Eigg Box makes the remote central.

“Established as a self-sustaining social enterprise, Eigg Box will be a powerhouse of creative activity, entrepreneurship, inspiration and collaboration.

“However, unlike its urban counterparts, Eigg Box’s eco-built studios and creative workspace are on the Isle of Eigg; a community-owned, renewably-powered island, off the north-west coast of Scotland with a population of less than a hundred.”  http://www.eiggbox.com

As part of Cape Farewell’s Sea Change commissions, artist Stephen Hurrel – along with two social ecologists – has been collecting stories and gathering information from the older fishermen on Barra and capturing this process on film.

In collaboration with Voluntary Action Barra & Vatersay, Stephen has been awarded First in a Lifetime funding from Creative Scotland to develop the project within the community and to develop a digital prototype version with work beginning in October. http://www.capefarewell.com/seachange/barra-maps/

Gwilym Gibbons, director of Shetland Arts, will talk about the collaboration developed with online radio/podcast producer Sixty Degrees North to maximise the reach, scale and accessibility of events held live in Mareel’s Main Auditorium.

Mareel is the UK’s most northerly music, cinema and creative industries centre managed by Shetland Arts.

Situated in a prominent quayside area in Lerwick next to the new Shetland Museum and Archives, Mareel houses a live performance auditorium, two cinema screens, rehearsal rooms, a recording studio, education and training spaces, a digital media production suite, broadcast facilities and a cafe bar with free high speed wi-fi internet access. www.mareel.org

For full details and mailing list sign-up: www.getambition.com

Webcast sign-up information to be announced shortly.

Notes to editors:

AmbITion Scotland is a digital development programme specifically designed to support individuals and organisations working in the arts, culture and heritage sectors in Scotland. It helps organisations and individuals grow in their capability, capacity, creativity and confidence to make the most of the opportunities of digital technologies. AmbITion helps organisations become digitally fitter so they can adapt to the social, cultural, and economic changes of the digital technology revolution. Funded by The National Lottery via Creative Scotland (as part of Creative Scotland’s Cultural Economy programme), AmbITion is designed and project managed by Culture Sparks in partnership with Rudman Consulting. http://www.getambition.com / twitter.com/@getambition

Shetland Arts is the lead arts agency in Shetland, enabling and empowering communities, groups and individuals to fulfill their creative potential.  http://www.shetlandarts.org/about/

Further information/images/interviews: Wendy Grannon T: +44 (0) 07916 137 632 E: wendy@wendygrannon.co.uk www.twitter.com/@wendygrannon  www.linkedin.com/in/wendygrannonatlinkedin

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Contact: Wendy Grannon
Phone: 07916137632
Email: wendy@wendygrannon.co.uk
Website: http://www.getambition.com