The Studio Faire Residency Award at Visual Arts Scotland & Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition: OPEN 2018.

Over the past 12 years, Studio Faire’s co-founder Julia Douglas has been working and exhibiting with two of Scotland’s most prestigious Art Societies, Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) and Visual Arts Scotland (VAS). See more about her relationship with SSA & VAS below.

We are now extremely excited to be developing a new angle to her relationship with these exceptional societies as a prize giver, by offering The Studio Faire Residency Award at their next joint exhibition OPEN 2018.

The Studio Faire Residency Award is a one month Artist Residency at Studio Faire in South West France and includes accommodation, studio space, travel expenses from Scotland, a photo shoot and a public showing of their work. Find out more about our residencies here.

This prize is only available to artists exhibiting at OPEN 2018 in Scottish National Galleries RSA Buildings in Edinburgh, Scotland from 29 January – 8 March 2018, which SSA & VAS claim is the ‘biggest show of contemporary art in Scotland.

Working together for the first time, the two leading arts organisations are joining forces to present an ambitious one-off collaborative jointly selected and curated exhibition celebrating the best in contemporary and applied art.’

To be in with a chance of winning the The Studio Faire Residency Award you must submit work for consideration for their exhibition before 6 November. Find out more by visiting www.open2018.art.

VISUAL ARTS SCOTLAND

www.visualartsscotland.org

Julia Douglas has been a Professional Member of Visual Arts Scotland since 2007, having exhibited with them regularly and winning the Sally Schofield Memorial Prize for her work ‘Highly Sprung‘ in 2006 (pictured).

She became a Committee member and assisted with organising the VAS Annual Exhibitions and running educational activities for them from 2007 to 2010.

Julia has continued to exhibit with them annually and has won a further two awards for her exhibits: The Russell Trust Prize in 2008 and The Richard Coley Award for Sculpture in 2011.

She returns to Scotland annually now to assist them voluntarily with the installation of their Annual Exhibition in Edinburgh.

The VAS Annual Exhibitions were shown alongside the Annual Exhibitions of two other art societies, the SSA and RSW (The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour) in the Royal Scottish Academy buildings. Julia soon became friends with these two other societies also, leading to a significant involvement with SSA.

SOCIETY OF SCOTTISH ARTISTS

www.s-s-a.org

In 2010 and 2011, Julia was employed by the SSA as Sales Agent for their Annual Exhibition and in November of 2011 became the SSA Administrator and Exhibition Coordinator.

Julia worked hard for this society and her good management and commitment ensured that their membership numbers increased as did their bank balance! She created a new, much needed website for them and more than doubled their social media following, as well as initiating the new online exhibition submission system still used annually.

In 2014 she submitted a work of art for the first time to the SSA Annual Exhibition, with the new digital submissions process allowing her anonymity, and was delighted to have her work selected. Julia’s piece was mentioned in a review of the SSA Annual Exhibition by Duncan Macmillan in The Scotsman (07/12/14): ‘Julia Douglas makes a poetic point with Keep the Fires Burning, a photograph of the gable, built with almost neolithic stones, of a ruined Highland cottage, its empty fireplace filled with flowers.’

When she left the SSA in 2016 to pursue Studio Faire she was awarded life long Honorary Membership for her service to the society.