Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) is a leading platform for national and international contemporary artists.
The society was originally founded in 1924 as an organisation for women artists and since 1990 has championed all craftspeople, makers, designers and applied arts practitioners. Today, our membership is composed of “Artists” and “Makers” celebrating the best in innovative contemporary visual arts. The conversation between disciplines – to encourage challenging and ambitious ideas – is at the heart of Visual Arts Scotland’s mission.
VAS has a vibrant, active and participatory membership of over 1,400 practising artists. The society provides a platform to support and connect them, and to showcase their work. Members and non-members alike are welcome to submit work for our prestigious Annual Exhibition.
Our Open Exhibition offers the opportunity for emerging and established practitioners to showcase new and unseen work and engage with a wider public; to generate debate, to test out and exhibit challenging and ambitious ideas within the context of Scottish and international culture.
Our membership categories cater for artists at all stages in their careers, whether new graduates, emerging artists or established practitioners. All are welcome to contribute to the continuing development of Visual Arts Scotland.
Visual Arts Scotland SCIO
℅ Brodies Solicitors, 58 Morrison St, Edinburgh, EH3 8BP
In the first instance for all enquiries please email:
admin@visualartsscotland.org
VAS members can submit details of forthcoming events and exhibitions that they would like to share by emailing comms@visualartsscotland.org
Members can also tag us on Instagram or Facebook to help us find your posts, which we can share with our over 14,000 followers. Non-members and organisations can share details of opportunities or news that may be of interest to VAS members and followers by emailing admin@visualartsscotland.org
The Officeholders, Council and freelance team of Visual Arts Scotland.
President
Tavienne is an artist/curator based in the Scottish Borders. She is Director of The Tim Stead Trust, and has worked within the arts sector for 12 years for Arts Organisations such as The Henry Moore Institute & The Pipe Factory. Previously the Arts & Enterprise Officer at Wasps, she has organised over 300 exhibitions, residencies, art fairs & events including producing Scotland’s largest Artist & Makers Market.
Chair
Vice Chair
Hannah is an art practitioner working in Edinburgh. She has recently pivoted from painting to pursue her interest in ceramics and sculpture. Her current work explores the nature of our interactions with “art”, creating forms that are organic and tactile. She has studied art in the context of its creative therapeutic benefits and does some work in this field.
Treasurer
Charles is an artist living and working in Edinburgh, where he studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. His sculptures, in paper and wood, and stop-motion animations draw from the forms, structures and histories of the built environment.
Co-opt Council Member
Amanda Airey has worked in the creative sector for over 20 years in a number of roles from bid writing, economic development, curation, and strategy. A fine art graduate, she continues her art practice focusing mainly on landscape and the natural world.
Trustee
Scott Smith is a contemporary silversmith based at Deemouth Artist Studios in Aberdeen, celebrated for combining traditional techniques with a modern design approach. Raised in North East Scotland, he draws inspiration from local Pictish stones and ancient metalwork, informing his detailed, hand-raised silverware.
Trustee
Toni is an abstract systems painter based in North East Scotland. She loves working in a range of mediums from oil paint to resin. The basic ingredients of her work are the celebration of colour and the enjoyment of paint.
Trustee
Anna is a visual artist based in north Edinburgh. Drawing based, Anna’s artwork and abstract illustrative style explores form, themes of illusion, rhythm and poetry inspired by movement, memory, written and unwritten languages, with supporting work consisting of writing, photography, colour and material experimentation.
Trustee
Niamh uses her practice as a space for navigating her reflections upon the ordinary and its underlying ambiguity. Through drawing and painting, she takes notice of the strangeness and familiarity of daily life as she encounters it, through direct observation, photography and other visual media, playing with image and surface to reflect the slight intangibility found in everyday life.
Trustee
Alison is an Edinburgh born painter whose work explores traces of life in unpeopled landscapes. Her work is characterised by her bold brushstrokes and energetic mark-making. She graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2021 and has gone on to exhibit her work in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Dundas Street Gallery, and the Royal Scottish Acade
Trustee
Gabriella is a painter and educator located in New York State. Originally from Boston Massachusetts, with Scottish roots, Gabriella received her undergraduate degree in Studio Art from Skidmore College, and her MFA in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work focuses on intimacy, kinship, comfort, touch, and connection. Gabriella teaches Drawing & Painting at Skidmore College.
1999
In order to reflect the diversity of the organisation, and to project a more modern, inclusive image, SAAC is renamed Visual Arts Scotland.
1990
Men are admitted for the first time as membership is opened to all, and the SSWA is renamed Scottish Artists & Artist Craftsmen to emphasise the contemporary craft element of the membership.
1924
The organisation is founded as the Scottish Society of Women Artists.
Visual Arts Scotland memberships are now processed through Stripe. If you have been paying by bank transfer or PayPal we request that you switch your subscription to our new system to ensure continuity of membership.
Your card will not be charged until the renewal date of your membership.