The Second Challenge

Words by April Smyth, MSc Publishing

'Dovecot Gallery is a landmark centre for contemporary art, craft and design built around a leading international tapestry studio."

For our second challenge, we made our way to the Dovecot Gallery on Infirmary Street. Dovecot holds a variety of creative exhibitions as well as being a registered charity. Dovecot Foundation champions the Dovecot Tapestry Studio to bring the work of contemporary artists to a wider audience.

The idea of history and culture is prevalent there with a century-long heritage of weaving in the Dovecot Tapestry Studio. There was a relaxed and inspiring atmosphere of ‘artists at work’ from the moment you walked in the door!

When we arrived, we were greeted by the lovely Aylson who is the receptionist as well as running marketing and social media. For me, Aylson really encompasses what it is to work in a creative industry. You have to be a people person and you have to be willing to get stuck into a variety of different jobs. The ability to work fluidly in different roles seemed to be a common theme in every destination we visited and as someone who wants to work in marketing and social media in the future, it was great to hear Alyson’s take on it.

Alyson enthused about the importance of being front-of-house when it comes to marketing. You need to be talking to your audience on a daily basis; working at the reception allows Aylson to do this. They use Twitter, Instagram and Facebook among other platforms to produce daily marketing content.

In terms of career opportunities, Aylson explained that the team at Dovecot is relatively small but the roles vary from marketing to finances to working in Dovecot’s Café by Leo’s. Aylson has an Art History degree but let us know that the team at Dovecot come from a range of disciplines and backgrounds albeit mostly art focused.

We were lucky enough to see the amazing North Lands Creative Glass: A Portrait at 20 exhibition which showcased some incredible glass creations. It showed us how fascinating glasswork can be. The exhibition is beautiful and I urge anyone who is in Edinburgh and interested in art to check it out before it ends on the 29th October. You can check it out here: https://dovecotstudios.com/gallery/exhibitions/north-lands-creative-glass-a-portrait-at-20/.

Our challenge was to create an event to showcase the exhibit and get people involved. We decided to aim our event at students. Stuart then thought it would be a great idea to aim it at 5th and 6th Year pupils at school who are interested in an Arts degree or career in a creative industry but don’t know where to begin. Putting our heads together, we thought it would be great to incorporate the amazing artwork at the exhibition with talks from Arts students and career advisors, and to end the day with a practical workshop. Reflecting on our day, I think it is amazing that we do have great career facilities for Arts student at Edinburgh Napier and it is so important that students are sharing these resources with each other as well as getting information directly from staff.

Once we fed our idea back to Aylson, we got talking about ACES (Access to Creative Education in Scotland) which aims to provide educational activities and support for young people in Scotland. We were all in agreement that it is so important to get young people interested in pursuing careers in creative industries and make sure there is more support (like the Creative City Challenge at Edinburgh Napier)

While it was brief, visiting Dovecot was really insightful! It is a vibrant place to be and, for me, it was heartening to know that you can use your skills as an Arts student to pursue a career in Marketing!