The Look Again team
Image by: Jack Stott

Look Again – cultivating a culture of creativity

By Jack Stott - 13 May 2021

Nestled within Gray’s School of Art, sits a small but extremely influential team which, at its core, aims to nurture and retain some of the best creative talent which exists in the North-east.

Look Again, which is made up of co-directors Sally Reaper and Hilary Nicoll, alongside Claire Bruce and Laura Reilly, was formed in 2015 as a visual art and design festival which would help people look again at Aberdeen through fresh eyes.

A collaboration between RGU and SMART Art Agency, the festival captured the hearts and minds of the public, with a series of amazing artworks and installations.

Fast forward to 2020, Look Again is embedded within Gray’s School of Art and is now working with teams across the university, and external partners, on the development of a year round programme of events and exhibitions.

Hilary believes the decision to take Look Again under the wing of RGU was a game changer, and is now enhancing the services and support the team provides.

“Things have grown exponentially since we became part of Gray’s,” Hilary said. “We have gone from delivering a very large festival, and adding to that a year round programme of events, exhibitions and workshops.

“We are also now much more involved in the academic curriculum, working on a number of projects with different schools and departments to reinforce the importance of the creative industries, and help to provide the knowledge and skills which will help our graduates thrive in their creative careers.

“The creative industries is not only one of the key areas that we are supplying students to, but also one of the key growth sectors in the Scottish economy.

“We are passionate about the sector being recognised as such, both within the university and the within the city, as the economy here is undergoing change and diversification, and as we are increasingly thinking about employability and talent retention for our students.”

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Look Again collaborated with the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group to launch the first-ever Creative Accelerator in 2019. This has developed into the Creative Entrepreneurship short-course, and will see 40 local creatives gain places on the fully-funded programme.

Sally commented: “This will be a development of the Accelerator where we are again looking to attract that creative talent which exists out there, be it alumni, current students or staff, and give them that incubation and support they need to propel them on to big things.

“We had so much positive feedback from the first cohort that it had really transformed their practice, so we are looking to build on this and solidify the progress we made into something quite tangible, which will now be credit-rated.

“For me, RGU is about entrepreneurship, innovation and enterprise, and we are now helping, alongside friends and colleagues throughout the university, to instil this across the creative offering within RGU.”

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