Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities

Host organisation: Upland Arts

Project title: Curating Contemporary Art in Rural Scotland

Project description

This project is focused on the planning and delivery of an exhibition featuring contemporary Scottish visual art and craft in rural contexts. With a specific focus on Dumfries and Galloway, the project will research the challenges, benefits and opportunities of curating beyond metropolitan centres.

Upland Arts Development CIC is a bold, rurally based visual art and craft development organisation working across Dumfries and Galloway. Established in 2015 and registered in Scotland as a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee, Upland is a membership organisation made up of visual artists and makers that have a strong connection with Dumfries and Galloway, with more than 170 members working across disciplines including ceramics, textiles, wood, glass, jewellery, printmaking, photography, sculpture and mixed media. It works to create opportunities that connect artists and makers with audiences, communities and each other. Upland works from Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries but has no permanent public venue. Its programme is therefore delivered across the region in partnership with artists, makers, schools, community organisations and venues, working across Scotland’s third largest local authority area, which has a population of 148,290 people and a dispersed rural population with a low population density. These characteristics represent challenges of geographical scale and limited infrastructure as well as opportunities presented by rural landscapes and resources.

In the next year we will hold an exhibition for our members that showcases the ambition and world-class contemporary practice of rural artists in our region. We want to use the exhibition as an exemplar for what the rural arts scene contributes to wider debates about contemporary culture and heritage, and the way in which artists working in non-metropolitan contexts offer unique and important ways of understanding practice and place. Many artists in this region work with traditional techniques, materials, and processes, preserving and reviving practices that have been endangered and threatened in the modern world. Many are also working in ways that are rooted in the landscape, conscious of their connection to heritage and environment. So, whilst rural creative communities can sit on the edge of things, their work is anything but marginal. With the exhibition, therefore, we also want to explore the challenges of curating and creating in rural Scotland - rural depopulation, aging populations, sparsely populated areas with little public transport; and the ideas about marginalisation and inclusion for non-metropolitan contexts, who are often left out of major discussions around the arts in general. Ultimately, the goal is to curate and reflect on an exhibition which challenges ideas about where the best art is created and who it is for.

Outputs

We would like the researcher to focus on three key areas.

First, researching both the opportunities and challenges for curating in rural Dumfries and Galloway, and more broadly in rural contexts. This could involve producing a piece of research or creative output on audiences, artists, funders and organisations.

Secondly, helping to curate, organise and produce the exhibition and the outreach programme, with the support of the Creative Director and the team.

Thirdly, to reflect on the impact and aims of the exhibition and evaluate the ways in which it might offer different models for thinking about curation.

In person/remote/hybrid

Hybrid.

This internship would work well with a hybrid model over an extended period. Some of the research could be done online whilst discussions with artists, audiences and partners would be best achieved in-person.

Benefits to the researcher

This internship represents a unique opportunity to work with an ambitious and innovative rural visual arts organisation, Upland, and to develop both practical and theoretical knowledge of the challenges and opportunities of rural curation. The researcher will have the opportunity to work closely with artists and practitioners, in creative organisations and with community partners, and to follow an exhibition through from inception to delivery. Upland's staff and members include internationally renowned practitioners, but the researcher will also have the chance to understand communities and audiences. The opportunity represents a chance to develop a structured but also independent programme of research and to contribute in practical and meaningful ways to an exhibition. There will be the chance to develop networks, use qualitative and quantitative research skills as appropriate, and get to know a specific landscape well known for its creative communities.

Key relationships

The key point of contact will be the Creative Director, Dr Kat Hill, a writer, researcher and creative practitioner with extensive experience in the creative and environmental sectors, but also a former academic who has a keen understanding of the demands of PhD research. Other key professionals in Upland will be the Events Co-ordinator and Youth and Engagement Officer, but the researcher will also work with other professionals at organisations such as Kirkcudbright Galleries and Cample Line. Research will involve working with artists and makers in varied disciplines - ceramics, glass, metalwork, painting - and also publics in dispersed rural contexts.

Subject areas

This opportunity would be relevant to the following subject areas:

Visual Arts; Curating; Heritage Management; Art History; Policy, Arts Management and Creative Industries.

Person specification

A1. Knowledge Base

• Essential: Subject Knowledge; Research methods – Practical application; Information Seeking; Academic literacy and numeracy.

A2. Cognitive Abilities

• Essential: Analysing; Synthesising; Critical thinking.
• Desirable: Evaluating.

A3. Creativity

• Essential: Inquiring minds; Intellectual insight; Argument construction.
• Desirable: Innovation; Intellectual risk.

B1. Personal qualities

• Essential: Enthusiasm; Integrity; Responsibility.
• Desirable: Perseverance.

B2. Self management

• Essential: Preparation and prioritisation; Commitment to research; Time management.
• Desirable: Responsiveness to change. 

B3. Professional & career development

• Essential: Continuing professional development; Responsiveness to opportunities; Networking; Reputation and esteem.

C1. Professional conduct

• Essential: Appropriate practice.
• Desirable: Health and Safety; Ethics, principles and sustainability; Respect and confidentiality.

C2. Research management

• Essential: Research Strategy; Project planning and delivery.
• Desirable: Risk management. 

D1. Working with others

• Essential: Collegiality; Collaboration.
• Desirable: Team working; Equality and diversity.

D2. Communication & dissemination

• Essential: Communication methods; Publication.
• Desirable: Communication media.

D3. Engagement & impact

• Essential: Public Engagement; Society and culture. 

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First published: 28 September 2026