December 2008 - June 2010 Adult Education Art Tutor for The Highland Council
Artist, Pulteney House Residential Care Home and Laurandy Day Centre Wick
Delivering weekly art sessions to users of these Highland Council Services, covering painting, collage, printmaking and sculpture.
January 2010 -June 2010
Caithness Arts Co-ordinator
June 2006 - January 2010
Board Member, Caithness Arts
August 2007 - Present
Board Member, Pulteney Press
November 09
Mosaic and Painting workshops at Keiss Primary School, near Wick, to create permanent artworks for front of school, with the theme of "Marine Biodiversity."
October 09
Art Workshops given at "The Hub," Wimberley Way, Inverness with families of Soldiers currently on deployment in Afghanistan
26th/27th September 09
Organiser of and participant in Caithness Arts Open Studios
September 2009
"Colour and Texture" A Masterclass at North Lands Creative Glass with Steve Klein and Kaffe Fasset
August 2008
Artist Broadfield House Glass Museum
" Introduction to Glass Fusing" workshop at Broadfield House Glass Museum during the International Festival of Glass, Stourbridge, West Midlands
Developing ideas through collage
May 2008 Artist in Residence Thurso Youth Club
January -March 2008 Maker in Residence, Broadfield House Glass Museum, Kingswinford and Red House Glass Cone, Stourbridge, West Midlands
October 2006 - December 2008 Evening Class Lecturer of Art, North Highland College, Thurso and Wick College
August 2007 Artist 'Winds of Change' North Highland College Arts Initiative with pupils from Golspie and Wick High Schools. During this collaborative project I worked alongside Audio Visual Artist Donald Ross in delivering workshops which introduced students to a range of artistic experiences including sculpture, installation, sound production, video and music, which led to a group performance installation in December. July 2007 Artist
Graffiti Art at Ormlie Community Association
July 2007 Bullseye Masterclass with Silvia Levenson at North Lands Creative Glass, Lybster
June 2007 Artist, Stained Glass Window Project, Pennyland School This project formed a learning outcome of P6/7's Religious and Moral Education. Each window had a theme of a different religion, from left to tight in photograph, Judaism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity. For more pictures see 'News' page.
May 2007 Artist Design, creation and tour of the 'Viewfirth Diary Room'
The 'Diary Room' travelled around community venues capturing opinion on video regarding the future of the Viewfirth site in Thurso
April 2007 Artist, Ormlie Community Association Workshops with a theme of ‘Creative Recycling’ with children aged 4-14, assisted by volunteers form Malawi as part of the ‘Global Exchange’ programme
The children were encouraged to discuss 5 themes, food, music, energy, children’s rights and Malawi. Each participant then chose 1 object from HomeAid Caithness, (charity shop) which they felt conveyed something about their chosen theme. The participants recycled paper, fabrics and wools in making sculptural forms of the objects; then going on to use other materials found in Homeaid eg wires and baskets to add to the final design. This project was made possible by the generosity of HomeAid, who supplied a lot of the materials, and also through a generous donation from Steve Hicks. This money represented the balance of funds from Clartie Arties, an art group that was run by his late wife, Lorna Calder, in the Dunnet/Mey area.
April 2007 Technical Assistant National College of Art and Design, Dublin
Artist, ‘Step it Up’ Community Education, Highland Council
Project with young people of Wick and Thurso to create graffiti murals in Wick and Thurso Youth Clubs
February 2007 Artist in Residence North Lands Creative Glass A collaborative series of workshops with writer Janis Mackay through which 'Mapping Caithness' was designed and created. Participating community groups were Lybster Day Centre, Dunbeath Day Centre, Pulteneytown People's project Get Crafty Group, and Ormlie Community Association. Each group made a representation of their area of Caithness in cast glass, which was consequently brought together to create the shape of the map of Caithness.
September 2006 Curator, Caithness Arts Week Exhibition
Curated exhibition of local arts for exhibition at Wick College as part of Caithness Arts week.
September 2006 Artist Scotia Review
I led workshops with children of Crossroads Primary School to create set and costumes co-ordinated for their performance of George Gunn’s ‘Atlantic Forest’ at Brittania Hall, Dunnet, in association with ‘Scotia Review.’
February – August 2006
Artist in Residence North Lands Creative Glass and Lyth Arts Centre
During this residency, funded by the Scottish Arts Council under the Partners Scheme, 50% of the artist’s time was spent delivering community projects to a variety of community organisations, for example Youth Clubs, Day Centres and Residential care homes. 50% was also spent as studio time, which culminated in a two month show at Lyth Arts Centre. This was a collaborative project during which I worked alongside glass artist Kate Williams and writer Janis Mackay.
January 2006
Artist, Mosaic Mural project, Keiss School
Led workshops with Keiss School pupils and teaching staff to create six mosaics for site frontage.
Shelagh Swanson with Primary 1 of Keiss Primary,
designing their mural 'Keiss Castle'
March, July, October 2005
Artist, Pulteneytown People’s Project, Wick
During these holiday clubs I led workshops with schoolchildren, designing and creating a rich variety of collage based work.
September 2005
Artist ‘The Seven Gates’
Hillhead Primary, Wick, Pulteneytown Academy, Wick,
Wick North Primary, Wick South Primary
Worked alongside Artists Sue Jane Taylor and Liz O’Donnell helping schoolchildren design gates for Wick salt stores.
Pupils from Pulteneytown Academy with their design
Artist, Hillhead School, Wick
November 2004
Led workshop with schoolchildren, based on the use of found objects within Art