Tag Archives: Room13
Donations for Nepal
Nepal is a country very close to our hearts. Room 13 HCMC in Kathmandu was the first Room 13 studio to be set up overseas, marking the beginnings of Room 13 International Studio Network.
Several youth expedition teams from the community of Caol have visited the country over the years to support and develop the Room 13 studios in Nepal.
As a result we have many friends and colleagues in Nepal, and close links with charitable organisations and communities who have worked to establish Room 13 projects and bring arts and creativity to the youth of Nepal. In the aftermath of these recent devastating earthquakes, Room 13 International will be collecting donations on behalf of these locally based organisations, which we will send directly to help their efforts to recover and rebuild their communities.
Donations and contributions can be made via Paypal using the link below:
Cheques or money orders can be sent to:
Room 13 International, Unit 1, Glenloy Street, Caol, Fort William, Scotland, PH33 7DR.
Please make cheques payable to Room 13 International, and mark ‘Nepal Fund’ on the back.
Thank you for supporting our global community.
Creative Place Awards Nominee 2015
Room 13 International is delighted to announce that we are leading the team which has seen Fort William shortlisted for the Creative Place Awards 2015, funded by Creative Scotland.
Since their launch in 2012, the Creative Place Awards have been awarded to smaller communities across Scotland, outside of the main cities, to enable them to enhance and promote the creative activities and programmes in their area. The awards recognise the communities’ ambitions in using the arts for the benefit of both local residents and visitors to their area.
‘Being nominated for the Creative Places award offers a wonderful opportunity for communities in Fort William and the surrounding area to celebrate our environment, mountain culture and native woodland through the planting of trees and the installation of innovative sculptures.’
Richard Bracken, Artist in Residence, Room 13 Caol
Working with the Fort William community, we plan to use the Creative Places award to create a series of interwoven art and arboreal projects, at the heart of which is The Liberty Grove / Doire na Saorsa, planting 1,000 native trees throughout the region. Working with different art forms, from sculpture and poetry to film, we will improve the environment for the entire community, and celebrate the world-renowned landscape of Lochaber in new and innovative ways.
As the lead organisation Room 13 International will co-ordinate a substantial programme of community-led activities, fostering an awareness of biodiversity and appreciation of wilderness, working with local and international artists, poets and storytellers.
Thanks to its inspiring surroundings, and initiatives such as the Fort William Mountain Festival, the town has an iconic status for visitors; now we will enhance and transform its identity, through innovative ecologically-sensitive cultural projects. Working amongst a community consisting of a remarkably strong network of local organisations, including woodland, geology and environmental specialists along with creative and cultural organisations, we will create a grove in which they can share their expertise in outdoor education, ecology and heritage. The Liberty Grove / Doire na Saorsa will prove that the region, and the Highlands as a whole, is supportive of visionary cultural projects integrated within wilderness landscapes.
All shortlisted Creative Place applicants have been asked to submit a second stage application, detailing more information about their project. We will find out if the bid from Fort William has been successful when the award winners are announced at a ceremony on 10 June 2015.
Fort William – Creative Place Awards Nominee 2015
Arts & Business Scotland award
We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in attracting funding from Arts & Business Scotland to support our business development over the coming year.
The money received through the New Arts Sponsorship scheme administered by Arts& Business Scotland will match-fund the sponsorship already pledged from Corpach Boatbuilding Company in Fort William.
Donald Hind, Managing Director of the business said “Corpach Boatbuilding Company are pleased to be able to continue with our support for Room 13. We are confident that our collaboration with Arts & Business Scotland will help to sustain and secure the long term aims of this dynamic, creative and exciting community organisation.”
Claire Gibb, Chief Executive of Room 13 International says, “We are thrilled to have received backing from Corpach Boatbuilding Company and Arts & Business Scotland. The support of both organisations is critical to us at this stage of our development and we look forward to working more closely with Corpach Boatbuilding Company over the coming year.”
This good news follows our recent move to establish a new office and gallery/workshop space in Caol, Fort William. It is hoped that gallery will host a series of workshops and events throughout the coming years, starting with a celebratory event on 30 April 2015.
Chief Executive of Arts & Business Scotland, David Watt added: “Room 13 International is a fantastic initiative and certainly ticks all the boxes in meeting the criteria of projects supported through the New Arts Sponsorship grant scheme. This is an exciting time for them as they celebrate their 21st birthday and the opening of a new workshop in Fort William which will no doubt prove to be a wonderful creative and cultural hub for the community. We wish Room 13 every success with the new venture.”
The event, marking the 21st birthday Room 13, will celebrate the achievements of the organisation to date and will also look forward to the next 21 years. Claire Gibb added, “We are delighted to have a new independent base for Room 13 in Caol, close to the school and community studios. This place is recognised worldwide as home of Room 13, and this new space offers huge potential to develop a vibrant creative hub that brings art, artists and the greater Room 13 International community back to the heart of Caol”.
Room 13 International is keen to develop links with other local businesses and encourage those who interested to get in touch!
Highland Youth Arts Hub
Room13 is delighted to be taking part in the delivery of an exciting new Youth Arts Hub for the Highlands. The Highland Youth Arts Hub is one of nine hubs being set up across the country as part of the National Youth Arts Strategy, Time to Shine.
The Highland Youth Arts Hub is working to the ambitious National Youth Arts Strategy which centres around three key themes:
- creating and sustaining engagement
- nurturing potential and talent
- developing infrastructure and support
In the Highlands, 12 youth and arts organisations are working in partnership to develop this exciting new initiative. The partners are:
Aros / Skye Dance, Eden Court, Fèisean nan Gàidheal, Fèis Rois, Highland Council, Highland Print Studio, High Life Highland, Moniack Mhòr, Plan B, Room 13, University of the Highlands & Islands and Youth Highland.
As the Hub develops, we look forward to engaging many more partners throughout the Highlands.
The Highland Youth Arts Hub aims to increase access to youth arts activities across the region and across a range of art forms including dance, digital art, drama, film, literature, music and visual art. We will be working together to offer more cross art form activities and to address issues like accessibility and participation.
The Hub will nurture and celebrate ambition, enthusiasm and talent in young people by improving the regional infrastructure and developing a new youth arts strategy for the area called Highland’s Time to Shine. Young people will be central to the development of the Hub. They will steer the direction of the work and make key decisions as the project will be led by a new Highland Youth Arts Forum.
The Hub is currently planning creative projects that will kick off in January 2015 whilst a new Creative Careers weekend and Annual Youth Arts Festival are in the pipeline for later next year – stay tuned and keep an ear out for what’s going on in your area!
Keep up to date with the National Time to Shine programme by following @TTSYoutharts on Twitter.
If you would like more information on the Hub please contact Lara Van de Peer on larabryce1@aol.com, the Highland Youth Arts Hub CoOrdinator for Room13.
If you are interested in becoming involved with the Hub or any of its projects, or would simply like to express a want and/or need for creative provision in your area, again, please contact Lara on the e-mail above. If, however, you’d feel more comfortable speaking with one of the Youth Arts Forum representatives please ask for contact details.
Postcards from Scotland
Schooling Scotland: Education, Equity & Community, by Daniel Murphy, book 7 in the ‘Postcards from Scotland’ series, will be launched this evening in Glasgow. The book features a chapter on Room 13!
‘Postcards from Scotland’ – a series of small books relevant to Scotland but also about the big issues of our time – is a collaboration between Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing and Argyll Publishing.
Postcards from Scotland aims to help develop new thinking in a readable and accessible format and publicise, to a much greater audience, some of the projects in Scotland which are already aiming to help bring about a new way of living.
Visit the Postcards from Scotland website for more information or to buy any of these fascinating and insightful books.
The webpage contains a link to Daniel Murphys’ Tour Journal in full, which includes a detailed description of his visit to Room 13 Caol. Jump to page 29 for Room 13, or browse the full document to find out about a range of other inspirational schools across Scotland.
UNEDUCATED 5 Sept – 5th Oct 2014
A collection of artwork and images from the Room 13 archive are on show at the Counihan Gallery In Brunswick, Melbourne Australia.
Curated by Kym Maxwell, UNEDUCATED presents artworks and projects that explore ideas of society, knowledge and institutional learning that both provoke consideration of our role as spectators and reflect on the debate of the ‘educational turn’ in contemporary art discourse.
Read a review of this exhibition: http://primermag.net/art/2014/9/kym-maxwell-interview-uneducated
Highland Youth Arts Forum – 2 Lochaber Representatives needed by 10th July
Are you based in Lochaber (Scotland)? Are you aged 14 – 19? Interested in the arts? Interested in finding out what creative projects young people in your area would like to get involved in? Want to tell the Highland Youth Arts Forum about it?
Room 13 International is looking for 2 young Lochaber people to represent the area at the new Highland Youth Arts Forum which is being set up to lead the development of Highland Youth Arts Hub.
Room 13 International is one of 12 organisations working together to establish a Highland Youth Arts Hub. This is part of a new initiative supported by Creative Scotland which will result in 10 regional youth arts hubs across Scotland. Representatives from each of the member organisations will meet quarterly to plan and deliver a programme of multi-art form projects and explore new ways of working that will result in stronger partnerships between arts organisations working with young people in the Highlands. Integral to the programme will be a new youth arts forum comprising young people with interests across a range of art forms and from a wide geographical area. These young people will develop leadership skills, be creative in their communities, consult with their peers, and advocate for the arts.
As this is a new development, details of how the youth arts forum will function and what being a member will entail are likely to be worked out in consultation with the young people themselves in the first meeting. This is excellent CV stuff and there are good skills to be developed from participating – if you would like to be considered please fill in the form HYAF.APPLICATION-FORM1.JUN14 and send it back to us asap – deadline is 10th July.
info@room13international.org
Room 13 International
The Hub
30 Fassifern Road
Fort William
Scotland PH33 6QX
Summer Programme 2014
Room 13 Summer Programme will take place throughout July at Room 13 Community Studio in Caol Youth Centre.
Our workshops have been designed to keep you busy all summer – from hour long sessions for new Primary Ones to a week of Portfolio-Building, a 2-day Printmaking Workshop plus our Open Studio sessions on Wednesdays, all based at Room 13 Community Studio in Caol Youth Centre.
We encourage people of all ages and abilities to come along and experience the studio environment, learn new skills, and just have a good time making things – come and learn new creative techniques, try out different printmaking processes, put on a play in a day making everything as you go, take a wander to look for materials and make something from what you see and find:
Ages 4 -5
· New Primary Ones Taster Workshop (hour long sessions)
Ages 5 – 7
· Very Young Artists – exploring materials & techniques
Ages 8 – adult
· Summer Studio – photography, drawing, constructing, painting, looking, printing…
Ages 10+
· Working with Stuff – collecting, carving, cutting, gluing, sculpting, drilling, pouring…
Ages 12+
· Skillbuilder Workshops – Tutoring in Papermaking, Felting, Plaster & Carving, Printmaking
· Printmaking Workshop – 2 days of linocut, etching, collograph & monoprinting…
Ages 16+
· Portfolio-building Workshop – a week (Mon – Fri) focusing on developing a strong body of work & trying new things
All Ages
· Felt Feet – family workshop learning felting and making felt…feet
· Play in a Day (in collaboration with Dramafish Studios) – family workshop, make the props, costumes, sets and write the play – in a day!
· Open Studio – free, open to all, come along and use the facilities
Please download the full programme for further details, prices and a booking form.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Easter Workshops 8th – 12th April 2014
Room 13 Community Studio in Caol Youth Centre will be running the popular Very Young Artists workshop and Studio Explorer Sessions along with family friendly workshops for all ages allowing plenty of opportunity to get creative this Easter holiday!
Creative Workshops & Studio Sessions for all ages will run from 8th – 12th April 2014 @ Room13 Community Studio Caol Youth Centre, Fort William, Scotland PH33 7DP
Download the full list of workshops here or contact info@room13international.org for details
Room 13 Delmar’s Embroidery Evening
Room 13 Delmar attended an evening at the Veterans Administration Hospital in which Ilene Berman, lead artist of Room 13 Delmar, sat in the waiting room and shared her talents and stories with the residents of the hospital. It looked like a fantastic way to spend time with some lovely embroidered tokens being created. Looking forward to hearing more exciting news coming from Room 13 Delmar.
