Our vision

Scottish Sculpture Workshop is a site of possibility, where artists and communities have the tools, skills, opportunity, and networks to collectively imagine, make and live in ways that are resistant and multiple.

Our mission

We empower artists and communities through collective learning and skills development. Our programme and rural workshops support experimentation, alternate knowledge production, togetherness and artistic desire. We question the narratives of our location and critically engage with the urgent issues of our time through artist-led projects, residency, open access and international collaboration. We build meaningful connections with the material world and each other.

Our core values

We value: Making
We value workshops as spaces for exchange and transformation.
We value embodied and material knowledges as equal to more dominant modes of understanding.
We provide a space for risk and experimentation, open-ended enquiry and learning through doing.
We believe making is a means of relationship building and brings new, collective ways of being in the world to the fore.

We value: Collaboration
We care for, nurture and respect all that makes SSW; artists and communities, our team, capacity and site, and expect the same care and respect in return.
Our rural context offers a different approach and perspective. We enjoy being adaptive, resourceful and hospitable.
We value our relationships with the non-human and seek to learn from and with them.
We contribute to our rural communities and work to see them thrive.

We value: Openness
We believe everybody has significant, valuable skills and knowledge to bring to our site.
We embrace the multiplicity of our world; geographically, disciplinary, experientially and otherwise.
We embed equality and inclusion in all our activity and actively work to overcome barriers that prevent access to our programme and workshops.
We advocate for justice in the arts sector and more widely.

By upholding our core values, we create a respectful, compassionate and kind space for the benefit of all at SSW and beyond. If you notice anything happening at SSW which doesn’t seem in line with these values, please let us know. We can be reached at admin [at] ssw.org.uk.

Our location

We have been embedded in Lumsden in the north-east of Scotland since 1979. Visit our ‘contact’ page for directions.