Collaborate with the Barn

For over thirty years, the Barn has been delivering memorable cultural experiences in the heart of Deeside. Our team are always looking for high quality arts experiences to bring to our communities here in Banchory and beyond - but we can't do this alone!

At the Barn, collaboration is at the heart of what we do. We work with artists, creative producers, schools, community groups, charities, businesses and other organisations to develop cultural experiences that connect people, spark creativity and strengthen communities. Whether you're looking to develop a new creative project, explore a partnership, support community engagement or bring people together through the arts, we'd love to hear from you. We welcome conversations at any stage and are always interested in exploring new ideas together.

Get in touch with us to see how we can work together.

Contact our Co-Director of Artistic Vision and Programme,

Giulia at: g.director@thebarnarts.co.uk

People are exploring creativity at the Barn through a workshop in the garden

Have a look at our current projects

Our past projects and exhibitions

The Deep Wealth of this Nation, Scotland by Newton Harrison
Newton Harrison’s The Deep Wealth of this Nation, Scotland project provides an ecological vision for how Scotland could become the first industrialised nation to give back more to the life web than it consumes. The vision draws out the importance of five commons: soil, forestry, water, air and importantly the commons of mind, meaning how we as a human population might reach agreement about principles for putting the health of ecosystems first. It therefore offers a holistic vision and framework to draw together different stakeholders including artists, scientists and citizens to explore the importance of soil the natural environment for mitigation and adaptation to collectively address the challenges we face.
The Ark - We Stand Beside by Jane Frere
The Ark: We Stand Beside brought a sense of urgency and shared responsibility, asking what it means to stand alongside the natural world at a moment when so much is at risk. Shaped by growing concern over the climate crisis, the exhibition invited visitors to choose a species to ‘stand beside’ in a symbolic act of solidarity.

The lead artist of the exhibition, Jane Frere, also invited artists Ade Adesina, Hilary Paynter, Fiona Hope and Julia Barton to collaborate on the exhibition, with further contributions from Fiona Hope, Helen Jackson, Tom Addy, Charlie MacFarlane-Barrow and Alis Ballance.

At the heart of the exhibition stood a floating ark - within it, a sound sculpture carried the voices of children and traditional Highland storytellers, speaking the names of threatened species in Gaelic and English - a quiet roll call of what we risk losing.

The Ark did not offer easy answers. Instead, it asks a simple question: what would you choose to stand beside and why?
Becoming Earthly
Our Becoming Earthly project reflects a need to develop a shift in perspective towards care for the thin skin of the earth that is the atmosphere and topsoil on which all life depends.

Becoming Earthly was conceived as a process of thinking through doing, informed by many years of hands-on interventions at the Barn. The process is in itself ecological rather than outcome driven.

Becoming Earthly resulted in many projects for which more details can be seen here.

Becoming Earthly featured in Ecologies of Studies. A book of Secrets published by Omnia Studia Sunt Communia as part of the After Progress exhibition (2021) Goldsmiths University of London.
Marie Antoinette
In 2020 with the on-going restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to affect how we live and work day to day, we used this time to work with artists MARIE ANTOINETTE, an artist duo from Portugal, to transform and open up new opportunities for connection with our audience. They spent 2020 collaborating with the Barn (staff and Board members, volunteers and audiences) on a special project called Riffing the Archive: Building A Relation. From a distance they have looked into our past work by collecting different experiences in the form of short videos, stories, photographs and conversations thus exploring communication and connection as a new way of being creative together.
Phosphorescence
Phosphorescence was a weekend of dance in partnership with DanceLive, Aberdeen in 2021.

We invited dance artists Luke Pell and Lucy Cash (Phos) to curate Phosphorescence; a weekend of creative encounters including dance, talks, films and sensory workshops. Phosphorescence brings together a collection of artists working with innovative and engaging forms to shine a light on ways in which we can tune in to what matters now in the places and conditions we find ourselves in. It presents dance alongside other art forms to reveal the rhythms, patterns and sensations that movement invites us to feel.
Gettin's House
Gettin’s House was a vibrant and immersive onsite installation and series of digital works created by Bajan British artist Christina Peake in 2021. Responding to the particular culture and nature of North-East Scotland, Christina playfully intersects her learning with stories from her own imagination and wider themes of Caribbean and Scottish diaspora. Combining environmental awareness, individual testimony and cultural narratives in a vivid and playful way, Gettin’s House is a richly-layered project and was the first presentation of Christina Peake’s work in Scotland.
John Newling
During John Newling's Artist Residency at the Barn in 2016, he explored writing short letters to nature. The ‘Dear Nature’ letters are reflections and questions about the state of Newling’s relationship with nature. Can one partner really make amends for such unreasonable behaviour? Can an irretrievable breakdown be avoided? What is the postal address for nature anyway?

The Barn’s work with John Newling featured in the following publications:

John Newling and John Casciani (Eds), 2020. Ecology Works. Nottingham: Beam Editions (This includes an essay by Anne Douglas and Mark Hope. Art in Co-relationship with Nature. pp115-120). John Newling 2015 The Last Islands Banchory: Woodend Publishing. (This includes an essay by Mark Hope and Anne Douglas Making Maps and Exploring Territory pp 55-59)
Lavender
The Lavender Project was a long-term conversation between the Barn, and The Arts Practice Research Community at Robert Gordon University.

Led by artist Helen Smith, as part of her doctoral research, Understanding Change: Connecting Communities Through the Arts, this project informed the Barn’s sustainability practices that we still employ today.

The discovery of a hardy sub-species of lavender specific to Banchory, inspired this project and became a symbol for sustainability specific to the conditions of Banchory.

The Lavender Project sought to understand the complete history of the, cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of the Dee lavender by the pioneering company, Ingasetter Limited, as a metaphor for understanding and testing our own organisational sustainability.
Meet Make Collaborate with Applied Arts Scotland
Meet Make Collaborate brought together Scottish makers with their counterparts in Mexico, Thailand and Canada.

Through a programme of international exchange residencies, participants had space and time to expand the scope of their practice and create new works on the themes of identity, sustainability and collaboration.

As part of this exchange, the makers came to visit the Barn’s site. Some responded to our indoor and outdoor spaces such as our wild garden, and integrated these considerations into their work.
Hemp
Hemp has been a traditional part of Scotland’s industry and is suited to both the climate and the growing conditions in the main agronomic areas, especially parts of the Borders, East Lothian, Fife, Angus, Moray and the Black Isle. Apart from financial benefits directly for farmers and producers, hemp also brings environmental advantages due to its capacity for carbon sequestration, contributing to a greater biodiversity, land recovery and remediation. This project looked at how hemp could play a role in the development and expansion of a low carbon, environmentally responsible industry, bringing a new ‘cash-crop’ to Scottish agriculture and offering new job opportunities across the supply chain.
Art by Post
The Southbank Centre, London developed Art by Post during the Covid-19 lockdown to engage those most isolated by social distancing measures, with a particular emphasis on reaching older adults living with dementia and other chronic health conditions. Art by Post was very simple: participants received free creative booklets through their letterbox or via email every four weeks. The booklets, created in collaboration with artists, spark the imagination and help participants stay connected to others via the growing Art by Post community.

As a project delivery partner, the Barn distributed booklets to a variety of North-East organisations such as Ace Voices, Grampian Hospital Art Trust (GHAT), Grampian Regional Equalities Council (GREC), Art with Life and the North-East Macular Society. As well as members of our long standing 50+ Third Stage Art group.
PhD Research
The Barn has supported PHD research which has led to long, sustained relationships with artists helping the organisation to develop and lead the conversation around possibilities for the arts in rural environments.

PhDs in which the Barn was a collaborative organisation:

Helen Smith 2015 Artist as Navigator: Understanding how the social qualities of art influence organisational change (AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award) in partnership with Robert Gordon University's Grays School of Art

Maja Zeco 2019 Placing Sound: A Contextual Exploration of Personal Identities in Sound Art Discourse Through Performance Art Practice (Applied Research Collaborative Studentship, Scottish Graduate School) in partnership with Robert Gordon University's Grays School of Art and Aberdeen University's Music School

In 2012-13 The Barn was a partner in Time of the Clock, Time of Encounter AHRC Connected Communities, led by Dr Johan Siebers, Middlesex University, in particular through Sounding Drawing 2012.