Good Reads

Thinking small

With culture thriving in rural Scotland’s village halls, would the arts be better off with a ‘Shed Officer’ and young practitioners trained to do their best with very little, asks Francis Stevenson.

Frances Richens
1 min read

As a theatre practitioner I work and have worked all over the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, but the majority of my formative professional experience was gained in England. Having since made a lifestyle decision to live in my native Scotland, I find that the structure of the arts is very different up here.

To begin with, there just aren't very many large venues. Once you get beyond the metropolitan sprawls of Edinburgh and Glasgow, professionally run spaces are few and far between.

Let's take my current home of Aberdeenshire as an example. It covers an area approximately a third of that of Wales, but only has one full-time arts venue, and even that is not ideal in many ways. (I'm not including Aberdeen city which does have the usual number one touring venue and a couple of small spaces… Keep reading on Creative & Cultural Skills