2007 Awardee: Gordon Bragg

I am most grateful for this opportunity to increase my learning opportunities.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 22
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Hailing from Dunblane, Gordon Bragg started out as a highly-talented violinist, developing in later years to lead NYOS, Camerata Scotland and NYOS Futures. He went on to study violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Gordon is considered to be one of the most exciting young musicians to represent Scotland in recent years.

After graduating, Gordon went on to join the prestigious postgraduate conducting programme at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

During his first year at RNCM, Gordon conducted the College’s symphony and string orchestras, the junior vocal ensemble and the wind ensemble in a diverse range of works and to an enthusiastic reception. He has a deep commitment to the music of today and has a great admiration for the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra of Finland, which promotes works by contemporary as well as classical composers.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help Gordon purchase a series of Barenreiter scores of classic works by some of Europe’s greatest composers, an essential tool for a student conductor.

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I am most grateful for this opportunity to increase my learning opportunities.

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2007 Awardee: Graham Mackenzie

My Ewen Thomson violin, which I purchased with my Dewar Arts Award, has been fundamental in my development and success. I am extremely grateful for the support I received from the Trust.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 14
ARTFORMS: ,
WEBSITE:https://www.grahammackenziemusic.com
 
TWITTER: https://www.tritter.com/grahamfiddle

Biography

Graham started to play the violin at six and won his first trophy at the age of nine. He has gone on to win many prizes and accolades, the most notable to date being in 2004 as the youngest ever winner at the Danny Kyle Open Stage.

Graham, from Inverness, is considered to be one of Scotland’s finest up-and-coming musicians who will become a leading player of his generation. Already he is an accomplished and exciting performer full of style and grace. In 2004 he was part of the band selected to support Blazin’ Fiddles on their Scottish tour. In 2005 he performed on the BBC Hogmanay Live show. He has performed on a number of occasions with fellow Dewar Arts Award winner, Aidan O’Rourke.

Graham has been a member of the National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland and is currently part of NYOS Strings. His ambition is to study classical music at one of the leading conservatoires in the country and to become a professional musician.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award enabled Graham to buy a Ewen Thomson fiddle. He says of it: “it is already a great instrument but will be even better once it has been fully played in.”

Since the Award

Graham writes that the violin he had made by Ewen Thomson is one which “I would have dreamt of playing when I began playing the fiddle at 6 years of age.” Since getting his new violin, Graham has won numerous prestigious prizes, including the inaugural Highland Young Musician of the Year in 2007.

In 2012 Graham was a finalist of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year, and in 2013 he graduated with a BMus (Hons) from the Royal Northern College of Music. He went on to study a Masters in Scottish Traditional Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He attended Cape Breton University, Canada, as an exchange student, and in 2015 performed at the Celtic Connections festival with a New Voices commission.

2012: BBC Young Folk Musician of the Year Award finalist

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My Ewen Thomson violin, which I purchased with my Dewar Arts Award, has been fundamental in my development and success. I am extremely grateful for the support I received from the Trust.

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2007 Awardee: Hannah Venet

I am truly shocked and ecstatic about this Award, I wish to thank the trustees for your support, it really means the world to me.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 20
ARTFORMS:
 
 
 

Biography

Edinburgh-born Hannah Venet developed an interest in dance when she was four years old. Initially she began as a pupil at the Theatre School, Edinburgh and joined the Scottish Ballet Junior Associates in 1998. As a pupil at Broughton High, she became part of the school’s specialist dance unit. After leaving school she continued to study dance at the Laban in London, where she gained a first class honours in dance theatre.

While at Laban, Hannah had the opportunity of working with many respected and accomplished dancers, and also participated in workshops led by some of the leading exponents of contemporary dance. Following that, Hannah won a place on the highly-competitive MA in Dance Performance course at the Transitions Dance Company, where only twelve places are offered a year.

The Transitions Dance Company was set up to offer dance students a stepping stone into the professional world. There, Hannah will continue to work alongside some internationally renowned choreographers. While a student at the Laban, Hannah impressed as an open and responsive dancer who was mature, sensitive and dedicated to her art. The fact that she has won a place with Transitions is testament to her calibre as a dancer.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help towards Hannah’s fees and living costs while working and studying with the Transitions Dance Company.

Since the Award

Hannah successfully completed her postgraduate studies and was awarded a Masters, with Merit, on her thesis “New Possibilities of Meaning….’  Of her experiences at the Transitions Dance Company, Hannah writes: “I have learnt so much in this Dewar supported year and I have been given the time, responsibility and freedom to develop as an individual with guidance from tutors and fellow dancers alike. My confidence in my own uniqueness and abilities has grown and I feel ready to continue to learn and grow as a Scottish contemporary dancer, but also knowing where I have come from and who I feel I am as an artist.”

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I am truly shocked and ecstatic about this Award, I wish to thank the trustees for your support, it really means the world to me.

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2007 Awardee: Hayley Scanlan

I would just like to say how thankful and grateful I am for you to pick me and how much it will benefit the rest of my time here in LA

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 23
ARTFORMS: , ,
 
 
 

Biography

Whilst she was just three-quarters of the way through her degree in textile design at Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee-born Hayley Scanlan was offered the chance in a professional life-time of a nine-month unpaid internship with top fashion designer Jeremy Scott based in his studio in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles.
The offer was the chance to work with Jeremy Scott on a print design for inclusion in his Spring/Summer 2008 collection, ultimately to be shown at the LA, Paris and New York Fashion Weeks. This is the kind of work which Hayley had dreamed of doing since she was a young girl.

Hayley’s major strengths are a creative energy and ability to understand and react to fashion trends, attributes which won her the internship. Her talent, particularly in fashion related areas, and the high standard of her finished work are abilities which will undoubtedly enable her to succeed in textile design in fashion.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award enabled Hayley to complete her internship in LA. Her striking print designs were part of Jeremy Scott’s collection at the Paris and LA Fashion weeks in late 2007.

Since the Award

During her time at the Jeremy Scott studio, Hayley worked on ready-to-wear collections for Paris Fashion Week. This experience gave her an “intense insight into the reality of the hard work and dedication involved in the fashion industry”. After the internship, Hayley returned to Dundee to finish her degree. On the opening night of her degree show she caught the eye of the head of the British Fashion Council and of model Erin O’Connor who commissioned a copy of one of Hayley’s garments in her collection. Hayley is now working hard to establish her own fashion and textile label.

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I would just like to say how thankful and grateful I am for you to pick me and how much it will benefit the rest of my time here in LA

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2007 Awardee: James McArdle

Your kindness has allowed the rare opportunity for Scotland to be represented at the world’s most prestigious drama school, and for that, I thank you. I am deeply honoured …

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 18
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Glasgow-born James McArdle is the youngest Scot to have been accepted to study for an acting degree at RADA in almost ten years. The list of previous graduates from RADA reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ in British acting.

James started studying acting at school, progressing rapidly through the practical examinations to become a member of the Advanced Higher Cohort. In his last year at school, he played Hamlet, the play having been chosen on the basis of James’s ability to play such a complex and challenging character. He was the finest young actor his acting teacher had come across in her career.

James has been a committed member of the PACE Youth Theatre for over ten years, and was considered to be one of the most talented young actors to have been involved in the company. To help raise money to get himself to RADA, James wrote a play which was produced by PACE Youth Theatre Company and which, it is hoped, will transfer to the Edinburgh Festival in 2008.

James is considered to have enormous potential as an actor and is expected to become one of Scotland’s finest actors in the future.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help with the fees and living costs as James starts his studies at RADA.

At the end of his first term at RADA, James writes, “This has truly been the richest time of my life in terms of the knowledge and growth I am receiving daily. The Dewar Arts Awards has allowed me to enter a difficult profession at the highest level.”  After a successful first year, James’s award has been confirmed for a second year.

Since the Award

In 2018, James starred as James Stewart, Earl of Moray in the blockbuster ‘Mary Queen of Scots’.

James received widespread acclaim for his role in ‘Angels in America’, for which he was nominated for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the Laurence Olivier Awards, and won a Theatre World Award in 2018.

In early 2025, James appeared in the four-part ITV series ‘Playing Nice’ alongside James Norton.

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Your kindness has allowed the rare opportunity for Scotland to be represented at the world’s most prestigious drama school, and for that, I thank you. I am deeply honoured …

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2007 Awardee: Jamie Keen

I am so excited about the future because I believe in myself and believe that I can make it. Without the Dewar Award, I would not be who or where I am today. Words cannot express the gratitude that I have … because you have helped me in reaching the beginning of my career.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD:
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

A former pupil of the Dance School of Scotland in Knightswood, Irvine’s Jamie Keen has his eyes firmly set on London’s West End theatres. Jamie is now studying Dance and Theatre Performance at Kent’s Bird College. His dance tutor considers Jamie to have the potential to become a dancer in either a classical/contemporary dance company or to enter into musical theatre. He is equally talented as a singer.

Jamie is described as a talented, dedicated and special performer with a rare energy and passion in his performance. He is a performer with ‘star quality’.

At the age of 12, Jamie danced the part of Young Romeo in the Scottish Ballet’s 2000 tour of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. While he was at Knightswood’s Dance School he performed in front of Princess Anne and more recently he was involved in the premier showing of the new advanced two modern theatre dance syllabus for the Imperial Society for Teachers of Dance.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help support Jamie through his studies in Dance and Theatre Performance at the Bird College.

Since the Award

In 2009, Jamie graduated from Bird College with a first class degree.  He writes, “I have learned that living as an artist is never going to be easy. Times will be tough, for example when there are very little performing jobs around meaning income is never secure. However, living as an artist is also extremely rewarding. ..Entertaining people takes them to a place where they can forget all about their own personal troubles and make them smile. That to me is the best feeling in the world, when you can see that you are making other people happy.”

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I am so excited about the future because I believe in myself and believe that I can make it. Without the Dewar Award, I would not be who or where I am today. Words cannot express the gratitude that I have … because you have helped me in reaching the beginning of my career.

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2007 Awardee: Jenna Reid

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 26
ARTFORMS: ,
WEBSITE:https://www.jennareid.co.uk
 
 

Biography

Shetland-born Jenna Reid began playing the fiddle when she was nine. Together with her brother, sister and pianist mother she formed the family band Filska. The band has recorded three albums and toured the world.

In 1995 Jenna, then 14 years old, won the ‘Shetlands Young Fiddler of the Year’ competition and 9 years’ later was a finalist in the ‘Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year’. In between she gained a good degree in Scottish traditional music at the RSAMD, Glasgow and became a professional musician.

In 2005 Jenna released her first solo album and won the award for ‘Best Up and Coming Artist’ at the Scots Traditional Music Awards. Jenna also performed with bands, including the Gaelic band Dochas and Scottish band Deaf Shepherd. As a member of Dochas she recorded two albums and won the award for ‘Best Up and Coming Band’ at the 2003 Scots Traditional Music Awards. All of this was achieved playing a fiddle found in her grandmother’s attic when she was 9 years old.

Not surprisingly, Jenna is regarded as one of the most talented and musical young fiddlers to have emerged in Scotland in the last few years. For more information about Jenna, please see www.jennareid.co.uk.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will enable Jenna to purchase a professional standard fiddle, in time to use when recording her second solo album.

Since the Award

After recording her second CD ‘Laughing Girl’ was finished, Jenna writes that her new fiddle “was a joy to record with” and that now she has “more confidence in my instrument and what it can do and how it will sound at a concert or in a recording studio.” In her new violin, a Southern-German Klotz violin, Jenna has the sound that she wants as a professional fiddle player.

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2007 Awardee: Jenni Fagan

I cannot wait to begin my BA in Norwich and I am really excited about the work I plan to do there.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 29
ARTFORMS: , , ,
 
 
 

Biography

Jenni has been writing creatively since she was in primary school where she won competitions for short stories and poems. Since then, her writing achievements are impressive and to date include winning a national competition in 2004 to represent Scotland at the European Young Playwrights Forum in Athens and in 2006 reaching the final six in a national competition organised by the Playwrights Studio Scotland which entitles her to be mentored by the Studio.

Jenni not only shows incredible talent and promise as a writer, she has a unique voice and poetic originality.

Jenni has built up a substantial body of work already; one book of poetry, an autobiographical novel, three plays, two film scripts, many short stories and countless outlines for future work.

She has been published in Brand Literary Magazine, Flux, Dope USA, Underground Poetix Instanbul, Tate Modern, Graffiti Kalkota India, Dwang Anthology, Beat Anthology and Unthology amongst others.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will support Jenni through a degree in creative writing at Norwich School of Art & Design, and later at Greenwich University.

Since the Award

In 2010 Jenni graduated with a first-class degree. In the same year her novel The Panopticon was completed and her art installation The Scold’s Bridle, a collaboration wth the words of women in prison, was exhibited at Greenwich Gallery.

Her first collection of poetry Urchin Belle, published by Blackheath Books, was a sell-out and her second collection The Dead Queen of Bohemia is published in 2010.

While an undergraduate, Jenni facilitated a writers’ group at Norfolk Blind Association. She begins her first Writer’s Residency at Lewisham Hospital in late 2010. Jenni has accepted a place on the MA course at Royal Holloway, taught by Andrew Motion, starting in the autumn of 2010.

In 2013, Jenni’s novel The Panopticon was nominated for a for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction. Click here for further details.

Jenni took part in our Tenth Anniversary Celebrations, where she led a Meet the Artist session with fellow Awardee Jonathan Boyd.

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I cannot wait to begin my BA in Norwich and I am really excited about the work I plan to do there.

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2007 Awardee: Jenny Randall

You cannot imagine how grateful I am or how happy I was on opening your letter! Thank you a million times over.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 23
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Jenny was born in Vancouver and moved to Scotland with her family when she was seven. She has wanted to make films since she was twelve years old. It was a double thrill to be accepted to study film production in the city where she spent her early years.

Jenny started her formal training in film making at Dundee University on the Time Based Art Programme, where she specialised in film. She was considered to be one of the most talented students on the programme where she achieved top grades in all her assessments.

While a student she entered a climbing film Brick and Mortar Disorder, on rock climbing on buildings, into the Dundee Mountain Film Festival and won second place in the People’s Choice competition. She demonstrated her talent and potential for film-making by bringing a fresh approach and a sense of humour to the genre.

Jenny’s short film ‘Stupidity Pays’ can be viewed on the Channel4 4Talent website, and her film ‘Rat’ has been nominated for a Royal Television Society Student Award. She is the second awardee to be supported to study at the prestigious Vancouver Film School.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help fund Jenny at Vancouver Film School to study film production.

Since the Award

Jen successfully graduated from VFS and moved back to Glasgow in 2009 to look for work.  She writes, “with a script in my back pocket and an eagerness to get in touch with the contacts I have [in Glasgow].. I am very excited to be returning to Scotland, and I will always be extremely grateful to Dewar Arts Awards for supporting me.”

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You cannot imagine how grateful I am or how happy I was on opening your letter! Thank you a million times over.

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2007 Awardee: Joanne Timmins

I am delighted to accept the trustees offer of one of the Dewar Arts Awards.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 27
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Joanne Timmins is considered to be a most original, committed, disciplined and intelligent young theatre director, and a name to watch. She is committed to producing the highest quality theatre for children and young people.

In 2003, Jo graduated from Queen Margaret University College with a first class honours degree in Drama and Theatre Arts. Her specific interest is in children’s theatre, and according to one of the leading drama tutors in Scotland “we have not seen her like in this sector of theatre for many years”.

Jo, now based in Edinburgh, has lived in Scotland for the past 18 years. In 2004 she set up her own theatre company Cat in a Cup to develop and direct original theatre productions for children. One of the productions, Such is Nature, was a hugh success, most recently at Baboro, the largest theatre festival for children in Ireland. The piece was described by the Scottish Playwrights Studio as one of the most acclaimed plays produced in Scotland over the last two years. She is considered by many in the sector to be the outstanding new talent in the area of performing arts for children and young people.

How the Award Helped

Jo is currently Director in Residence with Imaginate. In this role, she will develop a process and aesthetic to inspire future children’s theatre. It is for this work that the Dewar Arts Award is supporting Jo.

Since the Award

After successfully completing her project “Theatre of Possibility”, Jo set up her own company Lyra which will produce ‘Rebecca’s Midnight’ in 2011.  The foundations of the company are rooted in the Theatre of Possibility concept. Jo writes that “the effects of the award have been long-lasting and continue to influence my development.”

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I am delighted to accept the trustees offer of one of the Dewar Arts Awards.

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