Cupar Artist in Residence 2011

by Gayle Nelson, 18 Aug 2011

Artist Judy Spark recently spent a week in Cupar as part of a residency which allowed her to carry out valuable research on a project which will be presented at the upcoming 2011 Cupar Arts Festival

Judy, who is based in Glasgow, and a lecturer at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, spent the week gathering information, making recordings, and visiting various sites around the area in relation to her project, which explores Cupar’s special disposition in terms of telecommunications. Her studio at the old St Columbas School building on Millgate was open to the public at specific times during the week, and people were invited to visit Judy there to discuss her work.

The residency was made possible through development funding from Creative Scotland, and is the first time Cupar Arts has been able to host an artist for an entire week, to allow them to carry out in-depth research and develop their festival exhibition on site. Judy’s residency has built upon research she began here in 2009, and was very successful in that she was able to spend a concentrated period of time here working on this project. She also benefited from the visits from members of the public who came to see her with useful information and local insights into her area of research.

Judy’s residency culminated in an illustrated talk, which she presented at an Artists’ Meeting hosted by Cupar Arts at the Old Parish Centre last weekend. This was attended by approximately forty artists from all over Scotland, who have also been selected to take part in the festival in October.