Shetland Arts Development Agency - Graeme Howell
Shetland Arts Development Agency
Shetland Arts is a development agency that owns and manages a number of buildings that deliver arts development and performance opportunities for Shetland. Their purpose is to place the arts at the heart of Shetland, to educate, promote, support and develop the practice and enjoyment of the arts by all.
Shetland Arts was founded in 2006 and brought together Shetland Arts Trust and The Islesburgh trust. The Trust’s collective histories provide Shetland Arts with a local, national and international reputation for arts development and delivery which was built over 20 years of work and innovation.
Now, Shetland Arts promote a year round programme within their venues, these include Lerwick based venues Mareel and the Garrison Theatre and the Bonhoga Gallery in Weisdale.
Shetland Arts’ role in the partnership is to help provide people access to culture and the arts, to make Shetland an enjoyable place to live. The hope is that providing this access to art and culture plays an important part in making the island an attractive for people to live and visit.
Find out more about Shetland Arts Development Agency on their website.
Graeme Howell, Chief Executive
Graeme believes the partnership can best serve the community by providing a platform for the third sector and public sector to work together on joint objectives.
In three years’ time Shetland Arts would like to see the partnership achieve a redevelopment of Shetland’s priorities. Graeme would like there to be a forum for conversations about what the people of Shetland want for the island in the next 15 years, as he feels there is not enough conversation happening in relation to future planning. His belief is that this needs to be prioritised if the island is going to progress and move forwards.
Graeme thinks one of the main strengths of the partnership is the significant impact it has on the organisations involved. He believes it has changed how Shetland Arts plans its activity and he sees that it has had an impact on the development of their social outcomes, which are very closely aligned with the partnership plans.
Graeme explained that although he doesn’t believe people move to Shetland specifically because of what Shetland Arts offers, he does believe that it is something that contributes to people’s decisions to move here when weighing up the positives of living on the island. People tend to consider a place based on its access to things such as whether it has good doctor’s surgeries, libraries, schools and sports facilities, as well as arts and culture venues.