Gaada’s core funders reaffirm support for 2022/23

Gaada is excited and relieved to have secured core funding for 2022/23, for the social enterprise’s community-focused visual art programme. The support comes from Creative Scotland and the Shetland Charitable Trust who have co-funded £93,436 and £43,900 respectively.

This will enable the continuation of the organisation’s inclusive creative work which has recently been described by Creative Scotland as being especially strong and demonstrating best practice. Gaada’s work for this new year will continue to focus on removing barriers to accessing creative development for a wide variety of folk in Shetland through regular subsidised activities such as One-to-One Workshops, Peer Group, Workshop Bursaries, Public and Private Workshops, Publishing Projects, and its Display exhibition programme. Each year, Gaada also creates fair pay opportunities for individuals and groups to develop cultural commissions and meaningful local resources.

Through this durational, community-building activity, Gaada continues with its founding social objective to contribute toward a visual culture in Shetland that is more dynamic and representative of the diverse demographics of communities and individuals that exist across the isles.

During these incredibly precarious times, this funding provides a further year of stable, fair pay to Gaada’s art workers. This security is essential part of Gaada’s developing capacity, and ensures the organisation can continue working towards a sustainable and more inclusive visual art culture in Shetland and beyond. Gaada will also continue to develop the provision of Shetland’s only specialist visual art making facilities through our Burra Isle workshop (more soon!).

Gaada would like to send a massive thank you to our funders and everyone who has supported the organisation to date! Whether that be by attending a workshop, buying a zine, or simply telling a friend about the work we do. All of us at Gaada are looking forward to continuing to collaborate with the folk around us on ambitious creative projects for another year!

The 2022/23 visual art programme is titled No Artist is an Island and will be launched in August, when full + further details will be available!