2008 Awardee: Victoria Armstrong

I am sincerely grateful to the trustees for granting me this award for my exchange to Cal Arts, Los Angeles.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 20
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Originally from Ireland, Victoria Armstrong moved to Glasgow to study drama at RSAMD, where she quickly impressed as an intelligent and compelling acting talent.

Before going on to higher education, Victoria was part of the ‘Rainbow Factory’ drama group in Belfast for five years where she was able to communicate her skills and love of acting to young people. Victoria is considered to be an exciting actor, able to create convincing performances and always willing to explore new possibilities.

Victoria was selected to take part in an exchange programme with Cal Arts, Los Angeles which involved spending 3 months at Cal Arts in early 2008. Victoria describes it as ‘a once in a lifetime opportunity for me, and not one that I am ever likely to get again’.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award provided funding to enable Victoria to spend 3 months at Cal Arts College.

Since the Award

Victoria worked with a number of directors, actors and writers at Cal Arts and benefited from working with American texts in America. She writes that the main benefit of spending time at Cal Arts was that “it gave me the opportunity to experience different theatre training. I was able to ….learn a lot about the theatre community there and how differently American actors are trained.”

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I am sincerely grateful to the trustees for granting me this award for my exchange to Cal Arts, Los Angeles.

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2008 Awardee: Wui Man (Raymond) Yui

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 15
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Wui Man (also known as Raymond) is a gifted pianist who moved to Aberdeen with his mother in the early 2000’s. Having no piano to use at home, Raymond would practise at school, and even during the holidays he continued to pracise there for hours every day.

Raymond audition for the Aberdeen City Music School, and at his audition he impressed the board with his considerable music potential and impressive motivation.  He was accepted as a student, allowing him to dedicate himself to his passion and talents.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Awards supported Raymond in his studies at the Aberdeen City School of music. He lived there as a boarder and was able to practise piano at any time.  This enabled him to quickly develop his skills, both in music and in his spoken English.

Since the Award

Raymond made his concerto debut with the Meadows Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh in 2010. Crowned as the Aberdeen Young Musician of the Year 2011, he performed concertos with various orchestras in Scotland. He has given recitals at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival and the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, and during his studies at ACMS he performed with a jazz band in venues such as the Blue Lamp, and the Edinburgh Jazz Bar.

Raymond has gone on to study at the Guildhall School of Music, and has received additional support from the Awards to facilitate his continued success.  He has won the Springboard Concerto Competition, leading to engagements with the Brighton Youth Orchestra. He continues to go from strength to strength and has a bright career ahead of him.

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2008 Awardee: Aidan Crosbie

Aidan was truly thrilled about the award. (Suzanne Crosbie, mother)

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 12
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Glaswegian Aidan Crosbie comes from a musical background, with both brother and cousins playing Scottish and Irish traditional music to a high level. Aidan started playing traditional music at the age of six when he joined Comhaltas, playing banjo, whistle and drums. Playing with his sibling and cousins in professional bands and groups around Scotland, Aidan quickly developed confidence performing at school, charity events and festivals including prestigious events such as Celtic Connections.

Aidan regularly enters music competitions, in 2004 coming second and in 2007 winning the All Britain Fleadh for both banjo and drums.

Aidan is considered to be a very talented young musician. He plays with excellent technique combined with a musicality and maturity beyond his years. He is dedicated to his music making and this dedication and enjoyment shines through his playing.  His aim is to study for a degree in traditional music at the RSAMD and already has the talent and drive to blossom into a very fine Scottish musician.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Awards enabled Aidan to buy a professional banjo of the quality he set his heart on.

Since the Award

Aidan writes, “Since receiving the Daughter of Dewar Award, my musicianship has improved enormously – I have benefited from top class tutoring, I enjoy my banjo playing much more, and am delighted at the positive feedback I receive.”

Since buying a new banjo, Aidan has had much success in competitions. In 2009 he won first place at the Glasgow and Scottish Fleadh’s in solo, duet and trio categories and also in duet and trio in the All Britain Fleadh, all of which qualified him to compete in the All Ireland Fleadh in August 2009.

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Aidan was truly thrilled about the award. (Suzanne Crosbie, mother)

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2008 Awardee: James Harrison

This will help me [towards] working in the Scottish film industry, by giving me training in areas that I would be unable to obtain in Scotland

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 22
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

James has always wanted to work in films, behind the camera as a director of photography.

Born in England, James moved to Glasgow with his family as a young boy aged eight. He was one of the first students on the new degree course at the RSAMD in digital film and TV production, from where he graduated with a first.

While he was a student, he also worked in the department looking after the digital film and audio equipment. This additional responsibility brought him into contact with a wide range of people and organisations in the industry.

James’ next step after RSAMD is to attend a number of short training programmes at the National Film and TV School in Beaconsfield which are designed to mould high quality entrants into the film and television industries. They will provide him with the essential practical skills he needs in order to break into this highly-competitive industry.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award funds James to attend a number of short programmes run by the NFTS, Beaconsfield.

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This will help me [towards] working in the Scottish film industry, by giving me training in areas that I would be unable to obtain in Scotland

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2007 Awardee: Alan Benzie

I believe it is really important to develop my own “voice” both compositionally and as a performer, and I would also love to be a voice for Scottish jazz on the international scene.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 17
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

To have a life in music has been Alan’s dream since he was eight years old. A graduate of St Mary’s Music School, Alan started his musical career by learning the violin and was a member of the National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland. He represented the City of Edinburgh by playing solo violin in the UK Holocaust Memorial concert.

Then he discovered jazz. He switched to playing the piano, set up a jazz quartet (Take 4) at school, with whom he has performed throughout Scotland and helped to launch a BBC youth initiative. Take 4received the School’s Director of Music’s discretionary Award for Musical Achievement.
Up until then, Alan was largely self-taught on the jazz piano. He then had the benefit of tuition from a number of leading pianists/composers who helped him develop and refine his technique and composing. A self-confessed obsessive jazz pianist by this time, Alan took every opportunity to play – with Tommy Smith’s Youth Jazz Orchestra, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and his own jazz quintet. He also was a regular performer in Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar, which led to great opportunities to play gigs with the best jazz musicians around.

Being offered a scholarship to study jazz piano at Berklee was a dream come true. By this time, Alan was being noticed as a jazz pianist of huge potential and, unsurprisingly, he won the BBC Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year at the same time as being accepted by Berklee.

On arrival at Berklee Alan made history by being awarded the highest ‘rating’ of any Scot entering Berklee for more than 20 years.

As well as allowing him to be in some of Berklee’s top student ensembles, this also gave him the opportunity to study with Berklee’s premier piano teacher, JoAnne Brackeen. He writes,”I had been hoping that it might be possible to study with her later on in my studies if things went really well, so I’m over the moon to have it happen from the start.”

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Awards is supporting Alan’s studies at Berklee.

Since the Award

Alan spent four remarkable years at Berklee, getting straight ‘A’s’ for his studies, winning the 2009 Alex Ulanowski Award for outstanding composition, taking over the piano chair of the Berklee Rainbow All Stars ensemble and culminating in receiving the 2010-11 Billboard Award.

He graduated Summa Cum Laude in the summer of 2011. In his last semester, he represented Berklee with his quartet at the Monterey Next Generation Festival. He went on to the Rochester International Jazz Festival to perform with his trio as part of the ‘Made in the UK’ series. He also had time to play with a couple of jazz legends; in one of Hal Crook’s ensembles at Berklee and with Jerry Bergonzi on one of his latest projects.

Alan writes of his whole Berklee experience that “I’ve been able to get a taste of what it’s like to play with some of the best musicians out there….and thereby learn some important lessons that no classroom can give you.”

July 2015 – Alan and his trio released the acclaimed debut album ‘Traveler’s Tales’, inspired by Alan’s travels as a musician, the landscape of Scotland and his love of Japanese animation.

Alan Benzie performing ‘Glass’

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I believe it is really important to develop my own “voice” both compositionally and as a performer, and I would also love to be a voice for Scottish jazz on the international scene.

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2007 Awardee: Jen Hadfield

I am so very grateful for my Dewar Award. The faith and the funding it represented renewed my faith in my own creative purpose.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 29
ARTFORMS: ,
WEBSITE:https://www.rogueseeds.blogspot.co.uk
EMAIL:jenhadfield@btinternet.com
 

Biography

Jen Hadfield has worked as a professional poet since 2002 when she received a writer’s bursary from the Scottish Arts Council. Her first collection, Almanacs, was published when she was 27 and won first prize in the Society of Authors’ Eric Gregory Awards in 2003.

Her Gregory Award funded an extended reading tour in Canada and the US, during which time she produced her second collection of poetry Nigh-No-Place which is due to be published in early 2008.

She is considered to be one of the brightest and most talented poets of her generation working in Britain. Her work displays verve and panache and her descriptions of landscape and natural forces is quite unique.

A permanent resident of Shetland since 2006, Jen is taking her work in a new direction to bring literature and visual arts together. In 2006 she exhibited at the Peedie Gallery in Orkney, a prototype of the folk-art she intends to develop.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will fund Jen as she realises Nigh-No-Place, a collection of contemporary miniature landscapes of Shetland onto tin and found objects, with text.

Since the Award

Congratulations to Jen for winning the T S Eliot Prize 2008 for Nigh-No-Place. Previous winners of this top poetry prize include Sean O’Brian, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes.  Chair of the judges, Andrew Motion, said, “We are absolutely delighted that Jen Hadfield has won this year’s T S Eliot Prize.  Nigh-No-Place shows that she is a remarkably original poet near the beginning of what is obviously going to be a distinguished career.”

Jen writes that, “The Dewar Award represented a green light to put my creative work first for most of a year… I consider the Dewar Award to have marked a crucial stage in my developing confidence as an artist in multiple disciplines.”

Winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Prize 2012. Listen to Jen reading her winning poem The Kids here.

Winner of the Highland Book Prize in 2021 for The Stone Age.

Recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize in 2024.

Jen Hadfield – A Writing Life from Scottish Poetry Library on Vimeo.

Jen Hadfield reads in Grasmere

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I am so very grateful for my Dewar Award. The faith and the funding it represented renewed my faith in my own creative purpose.

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2007 Awardee: Katri Walker

I am absolutely delighted with the trustees' decision, not to mention deeply grateful... I am very excited about making the film and about GI, I know it will be a very challenging and important time for me.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 29
ARTFORMS: ,
WEBSITE:https://www.katriwalker.com
 
 

Biography

Born and brought up in Edinburgh, Katri Walker moved to Glasgow to study for her degree in Fine Art/Sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art. She graduated in 2002 with a first-class honours degree.

Since graduation, Katri has lived and exhibited in Mexico, Finland and Australia. In 2006 she was invited to take part in the Next Wave Festival, with 5 other Scottish artists, as part of the Youth Cultural programme in Melbourne, held at the same time as the Commonwealth Games. In 2005 she returned to Glasgow to pursue a prestigious Master of Fine Art at the GSA

Katri works in a variety of media, including photography, drawing and film and video. Her films are short, direct and, employing tragi-comedy as a tool, she frequently deals with aspects of interpersonal relationships.

Katri has been invited to exhibit in the third Glasgow International 2008 in a joint show with the internationally recognised Spanish artist, Dani Marti. Katri is considered to be one of the best young artists working in Scotland today and expected to become one of the most outstanding artists of her generation.

Her planned exhibit, to create a short film on one of the ancient cultural traditions found in Mexico, won universal support of the trustees.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will go towards the expenses to creating Katri’s exhibit for the Glasgow International 2008.

Since the Award

Katri writes after her duo-exhibition at the 2008 Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art, “The public outcome of my project .. has been a really important step in my career. The response [to the duo-exhibition] was overwhelmingly positive, not only from the public but the media also.”

Katri subsequently undertook a 3-month residency in Perth, Australia and exhibited there in early 2009.

Katri features in our 10th Anniversary Exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.

Rapture [extract] from Katri Walker on Vimeo.

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I am absolutely delighted with the trustees' decision, not to mention deeply grateful... I am very excited about making the film and about GI, I know it will be a very challenging and important time for me.

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2007 Awardee: Paul Wright

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude for this generous support…. I am forever grateful.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 26
ARTFORMS: ,
WEBSITE:https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3591467/
 
 

Biography

Paul is considered to be one of the most exciting filmmakers of his generation.

Brought up in Fife, Paul moved to Edinburgh to begin studying film and photography, where he quickly developed a passion for filmmaking. He went on to study film at Glasgow’s RSAMD, where his abilities stood out.

His film ‘Hikikomori’ (cinematographer: fellow Dewar Arts awardee David Liddell) received many plaudits, including a BAFTA nomination for Best Short Film, a BAFTA Scotland win for ‘Best New Work’ and a clutch of other Best Drama and Best Fiction Film awards.  It also caught the eye of the NFTS, Beaconsfield, and Paul was offered a place on their MA in Directing Fiction course.

Through the production and post-production of ‘Hikikomori’ Paul demonstrated the essential discipline required to become a great filmmaker and story-teller, knowing how to tell a story well and balance all the elements of the film to serve the central idea. Paul has already impressed as a filmmaker who is sincerely interested in his art and its possibilities as well as in the world around him and in emotional truth. His is a name to remember.

How the Award Helped

Paul received a Dewar Arts Award to help him pursue an MA in Directing Fiction at the NFTS, Beaconsfield.

Since the Award

Paul successfully graduated from NFTS with an MA in Directing Fiction. While there, he made a number of short films, one of which ‘Believe’ (cinematographer: former Dewar Arts awardee, Benjamin Kracun) has already won four prestigious film festival awards as well as a special mention at three further international film festivals. His equally stunning film short ‘Until the River Runs Red’ is tipped for similar success.

Paul has signed to Casarotto Ramsay, one of the UK’s most respected film agents, and is developing his debut feature with Zentropa Films. In an article on the state of the British film industry, Paul was described as simply “the future of the British Film Industry.” He writes, “Quite simply without The Dewar Arts Award I would not financially have been able to take my place on the course and I am eternally grateful for your help during this important time in my career.”

In 2011, Paul’s film ‘Until the River Runs Red’ won the BAFTA Best Short Film. Congratulations, Paul!

In 2013, Paul’s debit feature film ‘For Those in Peril’ received excellent reviews and was screened at Cannes Film Festival. It has since gone on to gain a Scottish BAFTA and a nomination for Outstanding Debut at the UK BAFTAs.

Until the River Runs Red

Interview at the BAFTAs

For Those in Peril

Review in Variety Magazine

Feature in The Independent

Film details on IMDB

Paul Wright Interview: ‘For Those in Peril’ at Cannes Film Festival

Paul Wright Interview: ‘For Those in Peril’ at Edinburgh International Film Festival

Paul Wright Interview: ‘Until the River Runs Red’ at The BAFTAs

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I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude for this generous support…. I am forever grateful.

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2006 Awardee: Michael Turner

YEAR OF AWARD: 2006
AGE AT AWARD: 11
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

At the time of winning the award, Michael is the current under-12 All-Britain Slow Air Champion, and has won numerous other traditional music competitions. He has played at Celtic Connections, Fiddle 2004 and 2005, Ar Ais Aris in Buncrana, Co. Donegal and other Irish and Scottish traditional music showcases.

Glasgow-born Michael started playing the fiddle at the age of four. As both his older brothers are also keen traditional musicians Michael was exposed to traditional music from a young age. He quickly demonstrated his natural talent and flair for music.

Michael has above average artistic talent and potential for his age and the right temperament to perform on stage. He is one of the best musicians in his age group and has the talent, commitment and enthusiasm to go far. His aim is to become a professional musician, but needs an instrument to match his talent in order to progress.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Awards has enabled Michael to buy a Rab Cherry fiddle.

Since the Award

Michael writes that since receiving his new fiddle his standard of playing has vastly improved. He has since won a clutch of medals in duet, trio, ceilidh band and other group competitions. The achievements he particularly cherishes are winning the All-Scotland Solo Slow Air competition followed by coming 3rd in the British Championships in the 12-15 age group. In 2009 he came first in the Scottish Fiddle Solo competition and then 3rd in the British Championships again. Other highlights of the year were supporting fellow Dewar Arts Awardees, Kathleen Boyle and Lauren McColl, with his group Southside Fiddlers.

Michael says that thanks to his new fiddle, his musical ability and love for music have increased dramatically.

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2007 Awardee: Alana Florence

I’d like to thank the trustees for presenting me with the award. This is a wonderful opportunity for my design ideas to flourish in the extravagant city of London.

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

Biography

Aberdeen-based Alana is considered to be a talented artist who is able to take ordinary objects or figures and transform them on paper or fabric into something extraordinary. She describes herself as “a quirky colourful individual who flourished in the quiet country.”
A graduate of Gray’s School of Art where she studied textile and surface design, Alana’s tutors considered her to be an exciting student to teach. She has innovative and fresh ideas and possesses a highly individual and imaginative use of colour. Her final show at university stood out amongst a group of high-quality students.

Alana was delighted to be accepted onto the MA course in Textile Futures at Central St Martin’s in London and describes her aims on the course to ‘create something extraordinary and challenging.’ She aims to bring ‘fabric to life with outbursts of colour, pattern and quirky illustrations.’ After graduation she sold a collection of her works to an Aberdeen boutique and exhibited in the Wallace Gallery in London.

Alana is one of a growing number of Scottish textile designers supported by a Dewar Arts Award to develop their terrific creativity. Central St Martin’s is the place to study fashion and is extremely difficult to gain entry.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will provide financial assistance for Alana to pursue an MA in Textile Futures at Central St Martin’s in London.

Since the Award

Alana writes that an integral part of her course was to understand how science and design can be combined, which led to her designing a moving toothbrush which speaks the words ‘up’ and ‘down’. After successfully graduating with an MA in Textile Futures Alana plans to develop her ideas of pop-up wallpaper and kinetic textiles for fashion and interiors.

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I’d like to thank the trustees for presenting me with the award. This is a wonderful opportunity for my design ideas to flourish in the extravagant city of London.

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