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February 2025 Newsletter

12 Sep 2024
Demonstration at Scottish Parliament August 2024

Coming Soon...... New SAU member's portal partnered with Glue Up !

SAU are having a short pause in some of our Membership administration services to allow for an IT system migration over the next 2 weeks, (more information here). *Please note that this does not affect any part of your membership. The new Glue Up member management software will allow us to streamline member administration and will allow you, our member to: create a profile in a members directory (optional public or private), subscribe to subgroups, mailing lists and events plus track your subscription payments from one login.

You will receive a separate email with more information on how to access your Glue Up account soon.

Meanwhile, if you have any membership enquiries please do email, but note that our membership admin team may not be able to respond to you immediately between 1-17th February.  

You can reach the Membership Team at membership@artistsunion.scot

Thanks for your patience during this migration.

Artists Self pub image

Artists Self-Publishing - free online series 

Wednesdays 5th, 12th, 19th February 2025, 11am -12.30 Online via Zoom 

Self-publishing can serve as a tool for activism and political possibilities, disseminating countercultural ideas to a large audience. Artists and activists have utilised self-publishing to access alternative channels to educate and inform, while empowering those who seek nonconformist narratives and see a gap in public space and representation.

This 3-part series of presentations and discussions will feature invited speakers from Black Lodge Press, Rosie’s Disobedient Press, Good Press, Glasgow Zine Library and artist Jacob Hoffman who initiated the Public Library project in Edinburgh’s Dissenter Space. It will be co-hosted with Iona Gibson, who is rooted in the zine community and co-founded the Highland Zine Bothy in Inverness last year.

Image credit: Artwork by Cj Reay, Black Lodge Press, 2025

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 Shifting Sands image

Shifting Sands: New Horizons - free online workshops

Thursday 20th & Thursday 27th February 2-4.30pm, via Zoom.

(This workshop will be run twice - when signing up, please select one date only)
Shifting Sands was a research project which ran from 2020-2024 investigating 2020 graduate preparedness for work in the Contemporary Art sector and the barriers faced by these graduates in the first 12-18 months post-graduation. The aim of the study was to identify obstacles that prevent early-career creative practitioners from gaining entry to, and establishing a career in the Contemporary Art sector.
 
The recently released report, authored by Quinn Garrison and Ed Compson and co-commissioned by East Street Arts and Creative Scotland, identified that fine art graduates face multiple, intersecting barriers when pursuing a career in contemporary art. These barriers can be roughly grouped into four main categories: lack of knowledge, lack of skills, lack of experience, and lack of networks.
 
In this workshop, Quinn and Ed will guide participants through activities centred around these four categories. Participants will learn more about the systemic reasons behind these barriers, as well as experimenting with solidaristic tactics to navigate and resist them. You will have the opportunity to engage in peer-to-peer learning and networking as well as contributing to their ongoing research into the experiences of the next generation of students and graduates.
 
This workshop will be of particular benefit to fine art students approaching their graduation and those who have recently graduated from fine art courses.
 
SAU bag on a boat

JOB OPPORTUNITY, COME AND WORK WITH US AT SAU.  

Sadly for SAU, Kirsten Body is leaving her post as H&I Learning Organiser, but we are also really happy for Kirsten and her new job in Inverness.
We are currently recruiting for a new H&I Learning Organiser, please see the job advert and more information on how to apply at this link Here:

Multi-Year Funding announcement for Creative Scotland's Regularly Funded Organisations 

It is fantastic news that a significant number of Artists-Run Initiatives have been successful in their funding applications to Creative Scotland for Multi-Year Funding!  Well done to those who have been granted renewed funding! And, congratulations to those who have become new Regularly Funded Organisations; including: An Talla Solais, Applied Arts Scotland, Door In The Wall Arts Access, Dundee Ceramics Workshop, Embassy Gallery, Gaada, Generator Projects, Glasgow Zine Library, Market Gallery, Print Clan, Radiophrenia, Rosie's Disobedient Press, Sculpture House Collective, Take Me Somewhere, and Transmission Gallery.  Well done all, we wish you the very best with your projects!
 
For the full list of Regularly Funded Organisations, see the announcement from Creative Scotland here
 
Culture Counts has also provided some refections and analysis of the Multi-Year Funding announcement for RFOs. You can read this here  

Climate & Sustainability Sub Group February Meeting.

Our next C & S Sub group will be held online via Zoom, on Wednesday 19th February at 5 - 5.45pm. Come along and join the discussion on all things climate related. Please email campaigns@artistsunion.scot for a Zoom link.

LGBT+ History Month in Scotland

To celebrate LGBT+ History Month in Scotland, here are some links shared by SAU LGBTQIAE+ Pride Working Group: 
Glasgow Women's Library - LGBTQ+ Collections Online Resource 
 
Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive, in Edinburgh
 
Category Is Books, is Glasgow's brilliant independent Queer Bookshop (books, zines, artwork and events)
space 

Hypha Studios are offering a large exhibition space in Renfrew, Glasgow in their Open Call.

You can view the opportunity and learn more about Hypha Studios on their website.

All applications must be made online through this link or their website and by the deadline of 6pm on Sunday 23rd February. 
 

Creative Workshop and Affordable Studios Survey, Scottish Borders 

Please take part in a survey to gauge the need for creative workshop and affordable studios, to be part of a community initiated redevelopment of a derelict site in the village of Stow, Scottish Borders.
 
"Our group is trying to gauge the need for this and are hoping to get feedback via our survey . Although our village is fairly small we are fortunate to have a very successful community trust (https://stowhub.co.uk/) who are behind the redevelopment of the site and are on board with our proposal but need solid feedback to support this - hence the survey.  We are also uniquely positioned as a stop along the borders railway so are hoping to gauge whether people may travel from Edinburgh to use either the workshop or studio spaces if the redevelopment were to go ahead. "

 

Do You Feel Strongly About AI and How It Might Affect You? 

There is a UK Government Open Consultation which will shape UK legislation Artificial Intelligence and Copyright. 
On the 17th December, the UK Government announced an open consultation which will shape the legislation on Artificial Intelligence and Copyright. UK Government is seeking “views on how the government can ensure the UK’s legal framework for AI and copyright supports the UK creative industries and AI sector together.”
It is vitally important that individual artists, trade unions and arts organisations contribute to this open consultation! 
The deadline for submissions is by the 25th February 2025.  
 
For more information, please see the following links:
 
DACS article and report - there is a link to consultation on this page.
 
 

Artists' Petition - Stand against the unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI

Please sign and share this petition started by UK composer Ed Newton-Rex (and supported 38,281 artists/musicians/actors/writers including Kate Bush, Paul McCartney, Julianne Moore and Stephen Fry). “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted.”
See link to Petition here
 
- Ed Newton-Rex, CEO of Fairly Trained (an AI developer that seeks to ensure that creatives are respected and compensated) has prepared a template letter for MPs here.
- And a template response to the UK Government Consultation here.
 
Disclosure Scotland Important Information

Do you work (either paid or voluntarily) with children, protected adults, or both? From 1st April 2025, you will be legally required to have PVG scheme membership. Read more here.