Where We Stand is an exhibition organised by Community Land Scotland, featuring work by contemporary artists telling the stories and achievements of the pioneers of community ownership: a movement that has transformed Scotland.
The exhibition is coming to LAC this May, more information on dates and times can be found here
Artists include Virginia Hutchison, Richard Bracken, Colin Tennant, Saskia Coulson, Francia Boakye, Kate O’Shea, Emma Duncan, Ann Smith and Helen Walsh. More information on these wonderful artists below…
Ann Smith
Ann Smith is a mixed media artist working in oils, acrylics, and wool fibre. She creates colourful vibrant paintings inspired by our beautiful coastlines, landscapes and floral influences. Growing up in the countryside in her native Perthshire gave her an appreciation of the great outdoors. She takes inspiration from her surroundings in Dumfries & Galloway and further afield.
In addition to her paintings, she also creates wool felt/ textile accessories and crafts from her studio which is based at Ashley Bank House in Langholm.
Ann is a graduate of Heriot Watt University in Galashiels and has worked for over three decades in the clothing and textile industry. She has carried her love of colour and texture into her own artwork and has been exhibiting since 2011 in various galleries throughout Scotland and Cumbria. She has been teaching the art of wool felting for a number of years, both at her studio in Langholm and further afield. Sharing her love of textiles and the wool felting process.
Ann Smith
Helen Walsh
Helen Walsh is an Artist and Creative Practitioner living on the beautiful Solway Coast. Helen specialises in drawing and textiles, in particular embroidery. She is continually fascinated by the natural world and our connection to it. She is particularly interested in birds and their feathers and uses them as symbols in her work to explore the human desire to transcend. Choosing to work predominantly with natural fibres such as silk and linen Helen finds herself consistently drawn to traditional textile skills such as embroidery and dyeing and enjoys the connections with the often forgotten makers of the past that working this way gives her.
Helen is also a skilled and experienced workshop leader and works on a variety of community and education based arts projects working with a diverse range of people in a variety of settings. She is passionate about working with people to enable them to realise their creative potential.
Francia Boakye
Francia Boakye was born in London but spent her formative years in Ghana, West Africa. At the age of eleven, she returned to London, and it is this international upbringing that has led her to experience many worlds.
Having completed undergraduate studies in Law at Liverpool John Moores University, she became passionate about fashion design and enrolled in a night course in Garment Construction at Liverpool Community College. Upon completion, Francia wanted to further explore her artistic interests. Having heard about the reputation of Heriot-Watt University she came to Edinburgh to study International Fashion Marketing.
In 2015, Francia decided to take a bold step of faith away from the familiar into the unknown. She started designing and creating her very own in-house brand which would later be known as Frank Francia. Alongside this Francia runs thriving sewing classes in Edinburgh and beyond, and online. In 2023/24 her work was exhibited as part of Alberta Whittle’s Project at the National Galleries of Scotland.
Francia Boakye
Kate O’ Shea
Kate O’ Shea is an artist working across printmaking, large-scale installation, community development, and publishing.
She is a member of artist collectives Broken Fields, and Red Wheelbarrow Productions. Céist Na Talún (The Land Question) is central to the international networks of solidarity that Kate threads together with others. She recently co-published HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? (2023), founded Gravity Express with Dr. Ciaran Smyth, Vagabond Reviews (2021), and co-founded independent publishing house Durty Books with Victoria Brunetta (2018)
Kate O’ Shea
Richard Bracken
Richard Bracken is an artist and maker living and working in the Great Glen. His creative practice is fed by an ongoing, personal exploration of the land and aims to explore what it means for people to live in it.
Walking is central to growing his own understanding of the land and is the main way in which he collects ideas and questions. His work is a response to place, ecology, culture and memory typically in the form of sculpture, drawing, photographic work and print. He has created site-specific work at Trees for Life’s Dundreggan estate (Wolf Den, 2017 in collaboration with Alec Finlay) and at Loch Arkaig Pine Forest as part of the Loch Arkaig Art Trail commissioned in 2022 by the Woodland Trust.
Richard has a strong interest in place, community and education and since 2009 has worked with young people and communities throughout the Highlands, mainly as Lead Artist with Room 13 in Lochaber. Richard is also a member of Inverness-based collective, Circus Artspace. In 2020 he was commissioned by Community Land Scotland and the Stove Network to work with Abriachan Forest Trust as part of the Artists and Community Landowners project.
Richard Bracken
Coulson & Tennant
Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant (Coulson & Tennant) are an award-winning artist partnership who develop projects through a lens-based practice, combining genres of documentary and fine art. Using visual storytelling, they create artistic, documentary and environmental work for a wide range of clients and organisations as well as their own personal projects. To do this, they collaborate with many different communities and individuals and draw inspiration from historical, creative and ecological references.
Coulson & Tennant
Virginia Hutchison
Virginia is a visual artist who lives on the Isle of Lewis. A graduate of Gray’s School of Art (BA Hons Printmaking) and the Royal College of Art (MA Sculpture), Virginia ran the bronze foundry at Edinburgh College of Art from 2012-2023.
In 2022 she received funding from HIE to establish an art foundry and production space on the Isle of Lewis and in 2023 completed a creative producer training programme (Curated Place, Aberdeen).
Recent projects include, Stories of Radical Landownership in North Lewis (Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn / The Stove Network) and TV Dinners (In the Shadow of the Hand / Deveron Projects).
Previous governance experience include board positions with the Scottish Artists Union and Glasgow Sculpture Studios. She is currently a member of the board at An Lanntair Arts Centre in Stornoway.
Virginia Hutchison
This exhibition looks to connect community groups with the work of these artists, to investigate the journey of community ownership over the last 100 years, and ask: what do we want next?
Curated by Iain Craig, the exhibition originally toured across parts of Scotland in Summer 2024 in partnership with the Travelling Gallery, and was seen by close to 2,500 people.
The exhibition will tour to venues all across Scotland, coming to LAC early May – dates and times can be found here
