VACMA grant for artists and craftmakers opens for tenth year

The Visual Artists and Craft Makers (VACMA) fund aimed at supporting artists in the county to develop their practice has opened once again for applications, for a tenth year.

Supported by Creative Scotland through funding from the National Lottery in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Orkney Islands Council, the 2023-24 scheme offers two levels of bursaries:

Bursaries of £750 (For applicants that have been practicing for over 5 years, regardless of whether they have gone through formal education or not).

Early-career bursaries of £500 (For applicants that have less than 5 years’ experience outside of education/training, graduated in 2018 or later, or who have not studied art formally but have been practising as an artist for up to 5 years).

Funding can be used to support developmental research, skills training, studio work, exhibitions and mentoring.

In a change from previous years, in Orkney, there will be just one round for the grant this year which will close in February.

The Council's Arts Officer, Emma Gee, said: “Orkney artists continue to enthrall with incredible variety and depth to their work, and inspiring resourcefulness.

“February may seem a long way away, but we’d urge artists to starting thinking about an application now and to get in contact if they have an idea they’d like to chat through.

“VACMA funding is an important part of supporting our artists to carry on punching way about their weight.

“We’re delighted to now be entering the tenth year of this much valued scheme, with the ongoing support of the National Lottery Fund, HIE and Creative Scotland.”

Bursaries totalling £8k were distributed to local artists in the 2022-23 round of the grant.

One local artist who has benefitted previously from the VACMA scheme is Louise Barrington, who applied for a grant to improve her studio space at WASPS in Stromness to enable her to work more efficiently on large scale tapestries and other artworks:

"It’s meant I no longer have to work in my Mums garage where no amount of sweeping can clear the dust, and it can be extremely cold. I’ve been able to experiment with different tapestry techniques, without having to be concerned about keeping the textiles clean and able to spend more time weaving because I’m in my studio and it’s warm.

“For future projects this allows me a lot more options within techniques and materials I can use.

“The improvement to my studio ultimately meant I was able to create artwork that toured with Applied Arts Scotland, which I was very excited to achieve.”

Find out more about Louise’s work at www.louisebarrington.com

The deadline for applications to the VACMA scheme is 5pm, Tuesday 6 February 2024.

More information, application packs and case studies can be found on the Council website www.orkney.gov.uk/vacma