Perth, UNESCO City of Craft and Folk Art, are partnering with Wasps Perth Creative Exchange to launch three new community assets to support craft makers in Perth and Kinross.
A ceramics kiln, a glass kiln, and a photography dark room will be open for makers to use on a pay-for-what-you-use basis, meaning that users only pay for the cost of electricity for kiln firings and to replenish materials in the dark room.
As the UK’s first and only UNESCO City of Craft and Folk Art, Perth is a destination for craft.
Being known as a "craftis toun" as far back as medieval times, craft makers are still predominant in the city's contemporary cultural scene. Craft is celebrated, including in the collections on display in Perth Museum and the current Glass exhibition at Perth Art Gallery.
Wasps recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of Perth Creative Exchange, becoming a home to artist studios and creative industries as well as a cultural destination housing a gallery with a changing exhibition programme and a business incubator space with the Perth Ideas Centre.
This joint venture, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity fund and supported by Perth and Kinross Council, further embeds Perth Creative Exchange as a cultural venue in Perth's city centre, but also works towards community engagement goals of our UNESCO designation.
The funding from the UK Shared Prosperity fund, supported by Perth and Kinross Council, also covers the costs of technical advisors for each of the assets to ensure that users can have thorough safety inductions, but also so they can ask questions or share experiments to further creative innovation.
While community access to kilns and dark rooms does exist across Scotland, the pay-for-what-you-use model, possible due to the funding leveraged, reduces financial barriers to entry by avoiding membership models, upfront purchasing costs, or space rental.
View of darkroom - photo by Paul Adair