Few institutions have such a strong a sense of place as Glasgow School of Art (GSA). Take a stroll up Garnethill from the Buchanan bus station and the famous Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed building looms into view, now being skilfully restored following 2014’s devastating fire in its library.
Though its roots may be firmly planted in the city of its birth, the GSA’s latest venture lies some 170 miles further to the north, at the Blairs farm steading on the Altyre estate near Forres in Moray. The steading is home to the art school’s creative campus, described as “a research and teaching centre for international excellence in creativity and innovation”.
The GSA officially opened its campus back in January, with deputy first minister John Swinney popping in for an official visit on Valentine’s day. Mr Swinney took a tour around the 10,000 square feet of artists’ studios, teaching areas and exhibition spaces created inside three category-A listed Italianate buildings, which date from the 1830s.
Set amid Sir Alastair Gordon Cumming’s 12,000-acre estate, the £2.5million renovation project received £750,000 of funding from Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) and £500,000 from Historic Environment Scotland, with the balance coming from Altyre. While the buildings may be nearly two centuries old, the infrastructure is decidedly modern, with the campus connected to the outside world by super-fast broadband.
While the first students may have only arrived at the campus last September [2016] ahead of its official opening in January [2017], the GSA’s connections to Moray go back much further.
“I began having conversations with our partners at Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) back in 2009 about ‘design innovation’, which is a technique I pioneered at the GSA,” explains Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam, deputy director for innovation and director of the Highlands and islands campus.
“Design innovation involves looking at business development from a design point-of-view – so not just a single product but a whole portfolio or an organisation – and apply design in new ways, both in businesses and communities, because HIE has a remit that covers developing communities as well as businesses. We opened the centre for design innovation on the Horizon Scotland enterprise park in Forres in 2010 and that grew into the Institute of Design Innovation.
“We worked with local businesses on knowledge exchange, but we also began teaching design innovation so we could meet the demand from companies in years to come. That meant we needed a site where we could have studios – like we do in Glasgow – and we came across Altyre.
“What we have now is a starting point, not an end point. Now that we have the building, we can work with more businesses in Moray and throughout the Highlands and islands in a much more structured way.”
Working with businesses
Ms McAra-McWilliam points to the success of Scott & Fyfe, an employee-owned textile manufacturer in Dundee, which worked with the GSA on a major project – from the boardroom to the factory floor – to reorganise its business and set up a new workspace.
She’s also keen to work with groups or clusters of smaller businesses in the Highlands and Islands to use design to help entrepreneurs develop their companies.
One of the activities already underway is a Highlands and Islands design network, which is run with HIE. The network brings together designers from throughout the North of Scotland, allowing them to jointly pitch for contracts.
“This isn’t just about growing the creative sector itself – it’s also about growing the wider economy,” Ms McAra-McWilliam explains. “Designers can work with all sorts of companies – from life sciences through to renewable energy – and they can help make all sectors more competitive.”
The GSA is also collaborating with HIE on the creative futures partnership, which is “committed to the long-term and sustainable development of a creative, entrepreneurial and internationally connected region” and is a founding partner of the Digital Health & Care Institute, one of the Scottish Funding Council’s innovation centres, which brings together the Scottish Government’s enterprise agencies, health service and universities.
Current digital health projects include working with BW & FM Sherret and the University of the Highlands & Islands (UHI) on a music therapy product and with Active X Backs and the University of Edinburgh on a website and mobile phone app to “triage, educate and support” people with lower-back pain.
Around 100 students travelled to Forres for the GSA’s winter school, during which they worked with local businesses and communities to work around a theme of “innovation from tradition”.
“They worked with businesses and organisations including Johnstons of Elgin, Gordon & MacPhail, Forsyths in Rothes and Pluscarden Abbey for two weeks to look at their needs and how design innovation could add value – they’ll be working on those projects until the end of May,” Ms McAra-McWilliam says.
“While they were there for two weeks, all those businesspeople kindly came in to talk about their companies. Working with international students brings a fresh pair of eyes to those businesses.
“We’ll be working across the Highlands and Islands, but we definitely will be working with our close neighbours in Moray. We know them, we’re there with them on the ground, so it makes sense to do a piece of economic development work with them.”
Personal connections
Opening the creative campus marks a return to her roots for Ms McAra-McWilliam. Born and raised in Dufftown, she attended the University of Aberdeen, studying psychology before moving onto computer systems design.
Her career took her to the Netherlands where she worked for Philips, spending 20 years with the electronics giant, which included serving as its director of design research. After a spell at the Royal College of Art in London, she returned to Scotland through her work at the GSA.
“I still have family in Moray and they joke that I’ve been all around the world but gradually come back home, step-by-step,” she laughs. “I’m very happy to be contributing to Moray, to the place where my family are and where I was born and grew up, and which gave me the educational opportunities that I hope we’ll be able to supply to others.
“Given that personal connection, any contribution back into the economy and communities in the Highlands and Islands is a great motivator for me. Having lived in the Netherlands, where it’s very flat, coming back to the Highlands is still a real joy for me – I appreciate it more than ever.”
The bigger picture
The growth of the creative industries doesn’t end at Altyre’s gates either.
“The creative sector in Moray is buoyant,” explains Craig Robertson, Business Gateway’s senior area business manager for Moray.
“There is an increasing number of filmmakers, photographers and artists based in the area and creative hubs are emerging that will help the sector evolve. Despite funding cuts for the arts, the creative sector has continued to thrive over the past two or three years.”
He points to Tom Duncan Film based at Northport Studios and MC3: Creative Space, both in Elgin, as examples of successful hubs founded by individuals to help the creative industries to continue to flourish. Since the drop in the price of oil, Mr Robertson and his colleagues have also seen a rise in the number of people approaching Business Gateway for help when they are thinking about starting their own companies.
“People who have been offshore for a number of years often come to a point in their lives when they want a change,” Mr Robertson adds. “I think people in Moray are perhaps more willing to investigate the opportunities that setting up your own business may bring and try something new.”
Ms McAra-McWilliam’s point about stimulating the wider economy is illustrated by the Moray Speyside tourism strategy, which includes forging links with the creative sector. The strategy also encourages businesses to make the most of Moray’s connections with the “real” Macbeth, the historical king who was vilified in William Shakespeare’s tragic play.
Attracting tourists to Moray – whether it’s to watch craftspeople in action, to see a play or have a shot at painting or another creative activity for themselves – has a knock-on effect for other businesses too. It’s not only the tourist attraction or event organiser that benefits – it’s also the hotel or bed and breakfast in which the visitors stay, the restaurant or pub in which they eat and drink, or the butcher’s shop or fishmonger that supplies the sausages or kippers for their breakfast.
It’s not just films that can boost the local economy either. The Moray Economic Partnership has highlighted the importance of The Buke of the Howlat, the children’s book in English and Scots translated by James Robertson and illustrated by Kate Leiper. Elgin businessman Jim Royan and his wife, Jean, were instrumental in the project, which took a book first published in the 1440s and brought it to a new audience when it was published last autumn by Birlinn.
Creative engagement with the creative sector certainly appears to be paying dividends in Moray. With the GSA campus firing on all cylinders, those links between businesspeople and designers and artists are poised to grow.