What we do

Deveron Projects is an art organisation based in Huntly, a rural town in north-east Scotland, since 1995. Our work builds deep and meaningful collaboration between artists, communities and places, through the process of making art.

Deveron Projects organises events, produces projects and artist residencies and develops community resources. Our work is led by communities in and around Huntly in collaboration with artists and our team. There are lots of ways to join in!

We don't have a venue or art gallery. Instead we make artwork in public, across the town and surrounding area, and with people who live here.

We believe that art can take any form and collaborate with artists to practise imagining, collaborating, experimenting, testing, critiquing, questioning, deliberating, listening, making, learning and reflecting. These artistic processes can be applied to materials like clay, paint, words, images and sounds, but also also to systems, infrastructures and rehearsing new worlds.

This is to say, sometimes our work looks like objects, performance, paintings, music or other traditional art forms, but also sometimes it looks like gardening, cooking, policy writing, walking, caring for a building or people, planting a woodland, supporting community initiatives or many other possibilities.

Everything we do builds connections between people and across differences. We don't shy away from difficult, complex and urgent subjects and create spaces for learning together about the world and our place in it.

Our values guide our work and our approach continues to be enriched as we build a culture of possibility with artists and communities. You can read more about our learning in public as it develops here.

Programmes

Our work is formed into 3 experimental, long-term programmes, called HOME, LAND and COMMUNITY. Each programme includes projects, artist residencies, regular events and community resources:

HOME celebrates everyday and creative practices of cooking and eating, chatting and caring, sharing skills and learning together. Through this work we can build more complex understandings of our home and its place in the world.

LAND explores the tensions and lived complexities of land, its use, ownership and access, drawing connections between the local and global, personal and political.

Building community is challenging, messy and joyful. COMMUNITY holds space for learning the skills, histories and politics of community building, so we can organise together around the things that matter.

Regular Events

Most of our regular events have been running for over 10 years, and take place throughout the year. They are a firm fixture in Huntly's calendar and a great way to meet new people, learn new skills and share ideas.

Events are led by local community members or artists. You will always get a warm welcome when you come along. You can find out what's coming up here.

Artist Residencies

Residencies are when artists travel to make artwork in other places. Here at Deveron Projects we host two different kinds of residencies, both of which support artists from all over the world to live and work in Huntly.

Residency Commissions invite artists to make new artwork in public, in collaboration with Deveron Projects' team and communities. Artists will work with us over a sustained period, usually at least 3 months, but often for longer, up to several years. Sometimes Residency Commissions are advertised and artists are invited to apply, and sometimes we will invite an artist whose practice aligns with our communities' goals and interests to undertake a residency. Residency Commissions have a budget which includes fees for artists and collaborators, production, travel and access.

Independent Residencies are self-directed residencies with a focus on research and development. Artists are supported to focus on the development of their practice, ideas and personal projects through access to our bespoke artists accommodation, studio space and community resources. Independent Residencies are self-funded.

You can read more about how we work with artists through residency here.

Community Resources

Communities and artists need spaces to come together and tools/resources to make things happen. We care for a unique infrastructure of resources developed and sustained through our programme. This includes:

• Square Deal, a flexible and accessible community hub and kitchen on Huntly's town square
• Brander Community Garden, a regenerative and biodiverse community garden behind Huntly Library
• The Artist's House, bespoke and accessible living and working space for artists-in-residence
• The Town Collection, a collection of over 80 artworks by artists-in-residence at Deveron Projects over the years, located around the town
• Libraries, including a socially-engaged art library and a garden and ecology library, containing a range of books and resources
• A comprehensive physical and digital archive, documenting socially-engaged projects at Deveron Projects throughout the years. We understand this to be one of the largest and most complete archives of socially-engaged arts practice in the UK

Networks and partnerships

Collaboration is one of our core values and we work closely across the arts and community sectors, locally, nationally and internationally with a focus on developing 'next practice'. This work is strategic and develops slowly, in the long-term. Our work and thinking as an organisation continues to be enhanced through the mutual exchange of expertise and provocation with friends and collaborators. We welcome invitations to join in with existing networks and ideas for new partnerships. You can read more about our current work in this area here.