Q&A with the 'Engage' Programme Co-ordinator, Emmajane Kingaby
By Clara Maurillon - 11 July 2023
Gray’s creative programme 'Engage' is bringing brand new Art Weekenders this summer. Programme Co-ordinator, Emmajane Kingaby, answers our questions about the programme and how it’s been helping creatives in the North East.
Emmajane graduated from Gray’s School of Art with a First-Class Honours degree in Contemporary Art Practice back in 2022, when she also won the first ever Principal’s Award for Fine Art. Before studying at Gray’s, she pursued a career in retail management but decided to go back to university to study a creative course after she volunteered to support children from highly deprived areas outside Cape Town, introducing them to arts and craft materials.
Since graduating, she has been working hard to develop the creative industries in the North East of Scotland. Her most recent project is called “Engage”, an exciting creative programme which she tells us everything about in this Q&A.
1. What is the Engage programme?
Engage is a new creative development programme designed at Gray’s School of Art and is delivered in our purpose-built studios and workshops. Engage began in November 2022 and has so far introduced a "Building a Physical Portfolio" course and an "Online Portfolio Guidance" Course.
As part of this project, we have also launched our first series of Art Weekenders and evening workshops. In the future, we are planning on bringing:
• A Portfolio Provision.
• A summer intensive of Art Weekenders.
• A Young Art Weekender.
• A Young Art School designed to support younger creatives aged between 11-15 years.
2. Do you think Gray’s is unique in offering such a comprehensive summer programme?
I think that Gray’s School of Art is unique in itself, which is why staff and students are wanting to share their art school with everyone that’s curious. The North East of Scotland has a lot to offer and we are excited to collaborate with everyone who is involved in the programme, including our local designers and artists.
3. Why is it so important that Gray’s delivers a summer creative programme in the North East in terms of community engagement?
We are developing our new rolling programme in response to public feedback. What we heard was that there is a desire for people to exercise their creativity, especially over the summer period.
With Engage, we want to bring together creatives to experience a range of different disciplines and delivery methods across our school. We also have for aim to share the fantastic facilities available at Gray’s and showcase the work of local creative practitioners, to highlight how they each contribute to our local community.
Just over 100 people – 101 to be exact - engaged with our first series of Art Weekenders. As part of this series, we collaborated with HAAN Design Pop-up, Deemouth Artist Studios and Aberdeen Ceramics Studio. There were sixteen local practitioners involved in total!
The feedback from this first run has been energising, which is why we chose to curate our summer intensive activities via blocks of four different Art Weekenders.
4. How have people been engaging with the programme?
To date, we have organised 54 collaborations with 22 different local creatives, amounting to 265 people engaging with our programme. We have also been able to connect with our Alumni network as 70% of tutors from the programme have been alumnus, with 45% of participants also being RGU graduates. It’s also great to provide extra skill-building and networking opportunities for our student population as 26 current Gray’s students have been volunteering as part of Engage.
With having to resort to online events in the past few years, it’s been really exciting to welcome everyone back at Gray’s.
5. You graduated yourself last year, what does it mean to be working on Gray’s Engage programme?
It’s a unique opportunity that’s for sure. I’m stoked to be part of the Look Again Team and I’m so thankful to remain as part of the family here at Gray’s School of Art.
I’ve found myself at the start of a project that’s very, very exciting. To be in a position where I can play a part in helping others experiment with Art and Design feels incredibly rewarding. It feels powerful to be able to share the important work of others.
Engage is only nine months old, we are still growing, learning, and experimenting, but most importantly, we are listening and responding to feedback.
Thank you so much to everyone who has been part of the Engage journey so far, we hope to see many people get involved this summer!
Have a look at the next two Art Weekenders taking place in July and August:
- Second Home Studio and Café: Saturday 22nd July and Sunday 23rd July. This Art Weekender invites you to slow down and be part of a creative form of meditation. This involves a mix of mindfulness exercises with drawing and painting incorporated throughout.
- Experimentation: Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 August 2023. This Art Weekender provides the opportunity to experiment with a range of different disciplines before reaching your final outcome. Workshops include ceramics, jewellery making, textile printing, digital photography and creative coding.
