1 August 2023

Awardee News: Martin Lee Thomson

Congratulations to Dewar Awardee Martin Lee Thomson, whose duo Dopey Monkey have been appointed Chamber Music Scotland’s 2022-24 Ensemble in Residence.

Dopey Monkey have been appointed as Chamber Music Scotland’s 2022-24 Ensemble in Residence. The euphonium and tuba duo were formed in 2015 by Danielle Price and Martin Lee Thomson, a Dewar Awardee in 2017. The duo have since become known for their diverse and innovative new music, which blends jazz, folk, classical, and experimental music influences. They are passionate about showcasing the versatility of their instruments with original performances and cross-arts projects.

A Dewar Awardee in 2017, Martin’s award supported his studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where he studied under tuba soloist Oren Marshall on the BMus Jazz course.

As a duo, Dopey Monkey have been invited guest artists at Gravissimo Festival 2018 and the prestigious International Tuba and Euphonium Conference in Iowa, 2019. They were Dandelion Scotland Musicians in Residence for Findhorn Bay Arts in 2022. They are excited to find ways of further sharing their work, both in Scotland and internationally as CMS’s Ensemble in Residence 2022-24.

Listen to the duo performing in the video below.

Read more about Chamber Music Scotland
Read Martin’s Awardee Profile

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25 July 2023

New Contemporaries 2023

Dewar Awardees Thomas Cameron and Haneen Hadiy among artists selected for the 2023 programme

We’re delighted to see Dewar Awardees Thomas Cameron (2019) and Haneen Hadiy (2022) among the artists selected for New Contemporaries 2023. New Contemporaries celebrates emergent art practice in the UK, supporting contemporary visual artists to successfully transition from education into professional practice.

Running since 1949, the programme has held a vital role in the UK arts scene, introducing audiences to a list of well-known artists that includes David Hockney, Derek Jarman, and Rachel Maclean. This year’s selection includes final year students and recent graduates from arts institutions across the UK, as well as practitioners on alternative peer-to-peer learning programmes.

Thomas Cameron

Born in Helensburgh in 1992, Thomas is a painter with a distinctive poetic vision. He completed a BA in Fine Art at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee in 2014. He received a Dewar Arts Award in 2019, which enabled him to maintain studio space and to create a body of work focusing on the people and places of Glasgow. His work captures the optical pulse of the city and examines the detachment induced by consumerism, as well as pushing back against it. He now works and lives in London, and recently graduated with a MA Fine Art degree from the City and Guilds of London Art School.

Awardee Profile | Website

Haneen Hadiy

Haneen Hadiy was born in Glasgow, Scotland to Iraqi parents in 1999. Hadiy’s visual artistic practice explores her cultural heritage, family history and the reality of belonging between her motherland Iraq and her land of birth Scotland. Her 2022 Dewar Award supported the development and installation of a solo exhibition of her work in Iraq. Her works are known for their distinctive intimacy and integrity, and she continuously experiments through a variety of mediums to explore her family history, cultural heritage, and identity as a diasporic artist.

Awardee Profile | Website

Work by Thomas, Haneen and the other artists selected for the 2023 programme will be featured in an exhibition that will tour to the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool and Camden Art Centre in London. As well as being included in the 2023 Exhibition and Online Platform, these artists will have access to a range of opportunities including mentoring, talks, and workshops through New Contemporaries bespoke Bridget Riley Artists’ Development Programme.

Congratulations to Haneen and Thomas, we can’t wait to see what you do next!

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27 March 2023

New original soundtrack from Blair Mowat

Dewar Awardee Blair Mowat has composed the music for the new ITV drama ‘Nolly’, created by Russell T. Davies and starring Helena Bonham Carter.

Blair Mowat received a Dewar Arts Award in 2008 to help support his postgraduate studies at Bristol University. He graduated from the university with an MA in Composition for Film and Television and his career has gone from strength to strength since then.

A prolific composer of scores for film, theatre and television, he now has well over two hundred credits. His clients include the BBC, Channel 4, the English National Ballet and Royal Shakespeare Company. Most recently, he has worked on the ITV mini-series Nolly, created by Russell T. Davies and starring Helena Bonham Carter. The soundtrack album is now available to purchase on digital platforms, or you can stream a track below.

Congratulations Blair – we can’t wait to see what you do next!

Read Blair’s Awardee Profile

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1 February 2023

Join our board

Would you like to help support the brightest and best of Scotland’s young artistic talent? We are seeking new trustees to join the Dewar Arts Awards board.

The Dewar Arts Awards are seeking new Trustees, with relevant knowledge and experience, to join our Board and support the brightest and best of Scotland’s young artistic talent. We are a grant making charity that funds exceptional young artists in any discipline who do not have the financial means to achieve their full potential.

You would be joining a Board with a strong mix of governance, creative and social experience which has led to 1,121 young people being awarded over £6m in funding over the last 21 years. As a Trustee you will be expected to enhance our ability to make the right, life changing, decisions for young people and in turn ensure the future of the arts in Scotland and its impact on the rest of the world.

We’re keen to hear from individuals from any art form but are particularly interested in those with experience of theatre, visual arts, literature, craft, and those who work across mediums reflecting new ways of thinking and working.

As essential as your expertise in the arts, is your lived experience of growing up, learning or working in Scotland, which will help us to better understand some of the challenges our young applicants have. As a charity we value legal and compliance, research and evaluation, cultural education, and financial input, as we oversee an asset portfolio that is managed by professional fund managers. If you have a blend of the above, we would be pleased to hear from you.

Trustees meet five times a year in person across Scotland or online when appropriate. Applications are sifted and collated by the charity’s Administrator but there is preparation required in reading the applications so that you can make grant recommendations and take part in discussions about applicants at the meeting. The number of applications range from 12 to 40 per meeting. There are sub groups which you may be asked to join which meet in between Board meetings usually online. This is a voluntary role but expenses will be reimbursed.

To apply please send your CV and covering letter to admin@dewarawards.org for the attention of the chair.

For more information on the Dewar Arts Awards, please visit: www.dewarawards.org

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19 December 2022

Awardee’s short film qualifies for the 2023 Academy Awards

Screenwriter Hannah Kelso’s ‘Night of the Living Dread’ is long-listed for Best Animated Short

Dewar Awardee Hannah Kelso wrote the screenplay for ‘Night of the Living Dread’, a comedy horror that has now been longlisted in the Oscars Best Animated Short category.

Hannah received a Dewar Award in 2018, which helped support her MA Screenwriting studies at the National Film & Television School. Of her Dewar Award, Hannah said: “This industry is highly competitive but I am now in the right place and equipped with the right tools for the future”.

Congratulations Hannah – we can’t wait to see what you do next!

You can watch the trailer for ‘Night of the Living Dread’ below:

 

Read Hannah’s Awardee Profile
Watch Night of the Living Dread

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4 July 2022

Interview with Sarah Rogers, Rojhe Design

We spoke to jewellery designer and maker Sarah Rogers about how a Dewar Arts Award will support the development of her work.

The Trustees of the Dewar Arts Awards are delighted to announce that we have a new £90,000 fund to support ambitious, talented young people across Scotland who have a passion for traditional rural and craft skills.

Sarah Rogers, a jewellery designer and maker, is the first recipient of an award from this funding stream. We spoke to Sarah to find out more about how her Dewar Arts Award will support her work.

 

To find out more about Sarah’s work, visit her website at www.rojhedesign.com. You can also follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

To find out more about our new funding stream, read the news article here: New funds to support talented young people across Scotland

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Jewellery designer and maker Sarah Rogers working in her studio.
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Blog from Jill Miller

Jill Miller, Chair of the Dewar Arts Awards, discusses our new funding stream.

Having recently stepped into the role as Chair of the Dewar Arts Awards, the responsibility for ensuring that we invest our funds with those who truly need us has never been more pressing.

After two years of a pandemic and the ever-increasing price of food and energy (in fact everything we need in our daily lives), we’re even more focused on connecting with talented young people who need funds to be able to pursue or develop their talent – across any art form.

And now, thanks to the support of the William Grant Foundation, we have additional resources to invest for the next three years. We want to use these funds to extend the work we do to support young people from across Scotland who have a passion and talent in the arts and in related craft areas.

So, if you know someone who is pursuing a specialist craft skill in leather work, glassmaking, jewellery, textiles, wood, stone, instrument making… please connect them with us via www.dewarawards.org

Our application process is simple – visit our Apply page for further guidance and to submit your application. If you require further please contact: admin@dewarawards.org

Read the news article: New funds to support talented young people across Scotland

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New funds to support talented young people across Scotland

The £90,000 fund will enable the Trustees to broaden the scope of their work.

As the Dewar Arts Awards enter their 21st year, the Trustees are delighted to announce that we have a new £90,000 fund to support ambitious, talented young people across Scotland, thanks to support from the William Grant Foundation.

The new fund, to be invested over a 3-year period, will enable the Trustees to broaden the scope of their work. Trustees are keen to receive applications from young people who have a passion for developing their talent or skills across a broad range of interests including:

  • craft skills – supporting training to work with stone, textiles, wood, leather, metals, glass
  • traditional rural skills – you may need help with training / materials / equipment

or

  • you may need help to fund classes or courses that will help you to develop your talent across any art form

The Trustees are committed to inclusion and diversity and are keen to hear from young people of all backgrounds including those who may be care experienced or from under-represented communities.

Applying is easy – find out more and submit your application via our Apply page. However, if you feel you need help you can always contact us at admin@dewardawards.org for further information and support.

The fund is open now and we look forward to hearing from you!

Visit our application page to read further guidance and submit your application.

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Dewar Arts Awards - Supporting Scotland's young artistic talent
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16 May 2022

Jen Hadfield nominated for the Highland Book Prize 2021

The 2007 Dewar Arts Awardee is one of four writers on the shortlist

Dewar Awardee Jen Hadfield has been shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2021 for her poetry collection ‘The Stone Age’. Based in Shetland, Jen is a poet and visual artist who has been described as “one of the brightest and most talented poets of her generation working in Britain”.

In 2007, a Dewar Award supported Hadfield to travel to Mexico and research Mexican devotional folk art. This research trip inspired the creation of ‘Nigh-No-Place’, a solo exhibition of Shetland ex-votos in the style of sacred Mexican folk art – ‘tiny, portable, insistently familiar landscapes packed in an array of weathered tobacco tins, incorporating rubrics of very short fiction’.

The following year, Jen published her second collection of poetry, also called ‘Nigh-No-Place’, inspired by her travels in Shetland and Canada. The collection went on to win the T S Eliot Prize for Poetry in 2008, making Hadfield the youngest female winner of the prize. In his role as chair of the prize, Andrew Motion said that ‘Nigh-No-Place’ showed ‘[Hadfield] is a remarkably original poet near the beginning of what is obviously going to be a distinguished career”. His words were proven correct, as Jen went on to win the Edwin Morgan Poetry Prize in 2012, and in 2014, she was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society’s “Next Generation Poets”.

Jen’s most recent poetry collection, ‘The Stone Age’, was released by Picador in March 2021, and has been described by her publisher as ‘an astonished beholding of the wild landscape of her Shetland home’. The collection has now been shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2021. Established in 2017, the Highland Book Prize celebrates work that recognises the rich culture, heritage and landscape of the Highlands. Kapka Kassabova, serving on the judging panel for the Highland Book Prize, said of ‘The Stone Age’: ‘In a pantheistic journey of Shetland, Hadfield converses with her environment. The human and more-than-human worlds are perceived to be a seamless whole, and every rock has a voice. This book is a literary, environmental, and spiritual adventure.’

Congratulations Jen – we wish you all the best in the final!

The winning title will be announced at an award ceremony on Thursday 26th May.

Visit the Highland Book Prize website to find out more

Read Jen’s Awardee Profile

If you feel a Dewar Arts Award could support you in your progression as a young artist, or know someone else who might benefit, find out more about how to apply on our Eligibility and Application pages

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10 April 2022

Elaine Woo MacGregor shortlisted for Jackson’s Painting Prize 2022

The 2008 Awardee has made the final 42 from 8948 entries

Dewar Awardee Elaine Woo MacGregor has been shortlisted for the Jackson’s Painting Prize 2022 for her painting ‘Portrait of Nan Shepherd: Camping by the Wells of Dee’, making the final 42 from 8948 entries.

Born in Edinburgh and brought up by her traditional Chinese parents, Elaine moved to Glasgow at the age of 18 to study Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art. She received a Dewar Award in 2008, which supported a Partial Fellowship Artist Residency in the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson in Vermont. Elaine told us that the Award gave her ‘an exciting opportunity to work in a creative environment within the unique New England setting’ and opened up ‘new directions’ for her practice. In 2012, Elaine’s work was displayed as part of Roots to Shoots, an exhibition celebrating ten years of Dewar Arts Awards in the visual and applied arts. Elaine is now based in Linlithgow and works as an Art Tutor at the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Lifelong Learning.

The Jackson’s Painting Prize exists to champion exceptional artworks made by international artists at all points in their careers, with tailored prizes that aim to give successful applicants the exposure and resources to support them in their practice. Elaine’s painting ‘Portrait of Nan Shepherd: Camping by the Wells of Dee’, has made the final 42 from 8948 entries to the competition.

In an interview with the Edinburgh Evening News, Elaine said “The painting was inspired by passages in the book ‘The Living Mountain’ and the life of Nan Shepherd. I was interested in finding out about individual writers’ demeanour and habits, as well as sense of place, and how this shaped their identity and the themes in their work.”

“With the break due to the pandemic, I reflected on what it means to be a creative during these times, our relationships with natural and urban environments and our sense of ‘self’.”

Congratulations Elaine – we are proud to have been part of your journey and wish you all the best in the final! The winner of the Prize will be announced on Wednesday 13 April 2022.

Read Elaine’s Awardee Profile

Read Elaine’s Interview with the Edinburgh Evening News

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Portrait of Nan Shephere by Elaine Woo McGregor
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