Three artists based in the North-east of Scotland have been awarded funding by Aberdeen Art Gallery to make new works inspired by the Archives, Gallery & Museums’ (AAGM) collection.
‘Micro-commissions’ is the term used to describe these awards, due to the relatively short development and making time of up to 12 weeks.
Earlier this year creative practitioners living in AB postcode areas were invited to submit proposals for new works inspired by the AAGM collection and relating to two of the organisation’s collecting priorities: 1. Energy, environment, the local economy and 2. Identity and representation. The final works will become part of the AAGM collection.
This is the fifth round of Micro-commissions delivered by the Art Gallery, and the third to be supported by the Friends of Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums. The programme was established to benefit local creative practitioners with funding awarded to the Art Gallery as a joint winner of Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2020.
A record number of submissions was received in 2024 and were considered by the selection panel of Jessica Barrie and Griffin Coe (AAGM curators), Rosemary Kaye (Secretary of the Friends of AAGM), and artist Lynne Hocking, who received a Micro-commission award in the first round. The recipients are:
Mary Bourne: £2,500
Joshua Ekekwe: £1,000
Bruce Swanson: £1000
Mary Bourne RSA FRSS
Trained at Edinburgh College of Art and based in the rural North-east of Scotland, Mary has undertaken numerous commissions for public places including The Riverside in Inverness, interpretative artworks at Bennachie in Aberdeenshire and the headwaters of the River Eden at Mallerstang, East Cumbria.
She was elected an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy in 2012 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2023. Mary’s proposal centres on the changes wind power is bringing to the North-east landscape and its communities.
Joshua Ekekwe
A British-Nigerian multi-disciplinary creative based in Aberdeen, Joshua is a graduate of Robert Gordon University’s Scott Sutherland School of Architecture.
Since 2016 Joshua has been working as an artist, illustrator, and graphic designer with organisations including Canon, The Drum and Aberdeen Performing Arts. His art style is playful, curious, and reflective and his bold portraiture explores themes such as identity, community, and cultural legacy.
His proposal is for a portrait series reflecting the struggle of being born into two differing cultures, seen through the lens of sports day.
Bruce Swanson
Bruce Swanson is an artist and jewellery maker based in Aberdeen. Following a career largely outside the world of art, he completed a Masters degree at Gray’s School of Art in 2018. His practice experiments with combining contemporary making techniques with ancient skills, using jewellery-making, drawing, painting, silversmithing, printmaking and digital media.
His proposal is to make a piece of jewellery which recognises Aberdeen’s place as a centre of trade over many centuries, and its trading economy which became intertwined with communities around the North Sea.
Visitors to Aberdeen Art Gallery can see new works by two artists who received Micro-Commission awards in the last round, on display in Gallery 15 – View of Aberdeen; Rising Pillars of Aberdeen by Helen Scaife and Transformation and Anticipation by Clive Ramage.
Scaife combines illustration, text and 3D objects to explore the impact of climate change on Aberdeen, particularly the rise of sea levels. Ramage’s prints challenge negative perceptions about the future of Aberdeen city centre, highlighting how the disintegration of one thing can lead to the creation of something new and positive in its place.
Both works were commissioned in 2022 by Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums (Aberdeen City Council) with support from the Friends of AAGM.
