HIE investment greatly improves Gaada Workshop

Gaada has welcomed the first artists to Toogs since completing upgrades to the workshop and equipment over the past few months. The investment from Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE) allowed Gaada to make a much more usable space which in turn has made the facilities much more accessible.

The community interest company was awarded £48,017 from HIE towards the cost of transforming the building. So far, this has enabled us to alter the interior space, and double their capacity for weekly one-to-one workshops as well as purchasing new equipment for screen printing and risograph, improving useability and overall efficiency.

These improvements have in-turn now enabled Gaada to begin offering three pathways to accessing the workshop on a regular basis.  This includes weekly Open Access sessions, weekly supported workshops for neurodivergent artists, and monthly occurring group workshops which are open to the public.

Mhari McLeman, head of strengthening communities at HIE in Shetland, said:

“Gaada is an incredible social enterprise and fair work employer, which has delivered an immense amount of impact in the five years since their creation. Our investment encourages it to grow further, which, in turn enables it to increase their social impact by removing the barriers for a growing number of individuals including underrepresented groups. It’s a privilege to watch this organisation go from strength to strength and we are delighted to help them increase their capacity for workshops and the quantity and quality of the artist editions they produce to sell.”

Daniel Clark, founding co-director from Gaada said:

“This latest investment has enabled Gaada to create more capacity and improve the facilities at the Toogs Artist Workshop – a making space which is accessed on a weekly basis by a community that intersects gender, class, race, physical ability, and sexuality. By providing developmental and practical resources, we want to encourage and support artists to thrive in Shetland - particularly young people who are so often taught they must relocate to a large city to function as an artist.

“It’s also vital that we create paid work and commissions for local people. As an organisation that employs artists, we feel a sense of duty to ensure folk are paid fairly and we also have a duty to help educate and boost the confidence of artists who do undervalue themselves. It’s great to have officially opened the doors of Toogs Artist Workshop again and we are grateful of the support HIE has given us over the last year.

This support is bringing monumental change for our social enterprise and also the wider creative community of Shetland. There is, of course, so much more to share with you, but for now we wish to extend a massive thank you to the HIE team for investing in us!