COLSTOUN House, near Haddington in East Lothian, is the ancestral home of the Broun family. It is one of the longest continuously inhabited houses in Scotland, and has just become home to its newest art space.
Like many owners of historic homes, the Brouns have had to think of creative ways to generate income from their property. However, they are also choosing to engage with art in a way with benefits artists as well as the estate.
I meet McLean Sinclair-Parry (known to everyone as “Mackie”), nephew of the present laird, in the stable block which was renovated in 2010 to host wedding receptions, and has just been transformed into an art gallery.
He says: “I helped my family develop a weddings and events business and that grew successfully for 10 years. Then came the pandemic, and the new laws introduced by the Scottish Government last October on short-term lets made a lot of that unsustainable, so we needed to find other means of revenue.”
An art collector himself, Sinclair-Parry was already working with artists on their professional development and had launched an artists’ residency programme at Colstoun, offering stays of one to three months. Now he hopes to stage up to six exhibitions per year, some in partnership with other galleries and curators.
The first show is The Other Side, featuring the work of contemporary landscape painter Joe Grieve. 26-year-old Grieve has already had three sell-out shows in London and has work in collections all over the world.
Sinclair-Parry says: “The residencies are 95 per cent philanthropic, they are about helping these artists develop. The final five per cent is about doing selling exhibitions. Also, we are building an art collection. Each artist [who comes here] gives back a work, I hope one of them will be a real winner which can be the centrepiece of the collection.”
He says his long-term goal is to develop something like Jupiter Artland, the sculpture park opened 15 years ago by Robert and Nicky Wilson in West Lothian, displaying a permanent collection of “world-class” contemporary art, with a focus on landscape painting.
“I think landscape art in general is relatively under-represented, it’s seen by a lot of people as very ‘Sunday artist’, but there are some really interesting people doing weird and wonderful, very contemporary things, pushing the boundaries and commenting on issues relevant to today’s society.”
Families like the Brouns are among the pioneers of a new kind of philanthropy. While most are also art collectors, they have made the decision not only to buy art but to support artists actively. Art, while it might not be the main revenue stream, is an important element in a business plan which also includes community outreach.
A few miles away, another stately home has opened the doors to artists in a rather different way. Dalkeith Palace, just south of Edinburgh, is a magnificent 18th-century building which has served variously as the HQ of an IT firm and an overseas base for an American university, and has been empty since 2020.
Walter Dalkeith, the Earl of Dalkeith and heir of the Duke of Buccleuch, has developed the grade-A listed stables in the grounds into a food/retail complex and built a state-of-the-art adventure playground. The house is next on his list.
“I’m a photographer and my sister is a painter so we knew a lot of artists,” he says. “In 2021, just as we were coming out of Covid, we decided we wanted to give them a space to exhibit and hopefully sell after a difficult period.” The first Inception Art Show, held that year over three days and featuring 20 artists, was an “experiment”, but it paid off. This year, the fourth Inception features 35 artists and runs for 10 days.
“At the moment, it’s about opening up the house, letting people come in and see it. It’s a hidden gem, it hasn’t been open to the public for about 50 years, so to open it up is incredibly special.
“With an exhibition like this, we just want to cover our costs so we can do it again year after year. We’re gradually building up a programme of exhibitions and events, and hope we might get to a position where we can generate a little bit of income to reinvest back into the Palace.
“We’re ambitious for the house to become an internationally renowned space for exhibitions, education, music and dance. Enabling people to experience art and culture will always form the core of our ambitions. It’s about finding the ways to support that and build a sustainable future.”
Dalkeith says his inspiration is Marchmont House near Duns in the Borders, which was developed by dot-com entrepreneur Hugo Burge into a “home for makers and creators”. Burge restored the House, which had been a nursing home, by commissioning local artists and craftspeople, and created a complex of studios and workshops in the grounds.
Following his sudden death last year at the age of 51, the Hugo Burge Foundation launches its first programme this summer, including creative workshops, film premieres, open studios and a Friday art club, with the aim of building a hub for community and the arts.
The highest-profile example of this new kind of philanthropy is Jupiter Artland, created by Robert and Nicky Wilson at Wilkieston House in West Lothian in 2009. In 100 acres of parkland, they have developed a sculpture park which is about more than collecting: each year they commission top contemporary artists and work with them to realise their most ambitious work.
The park features the work of Anish Kapoor, Anthony Gormley, Tracey Emin, Charles Jencks and and Cornelia Parker, among others. The programme for this summer, which begins on 11 May, includes new exhibitions by Laura Aldridge and Andrew Sim.
Nicky Wilson says: “What started as an idea born at the kitchen table has turned into a space where the dreams have grown and matured into something beyond the walls. It’s an immense privilege to work so closely with great artists – some very early in their careers, some already established – often to produce their most important work or create a step-change in their practice. Jupiter has always been a risk-taking and nurturing place.”
However, even before Jupiter Artland was being discussed at the kitchen table, another historic house was offering unique opportunities to contemporary artists. Mount Stuart, the spectacular gothic revival house on the Isle of Bute, was turned into a charitable trust by the Crichton-Stuart family in 1989, and the house opened to the public in the 1990s.
The Contemporary Visual Arts Programme began in 2001, inviting an artist to Mount Stuart every year to make work inspired by any aspect of the house, grounds or history (there are now two exhibitions per year and a residency for a socially engaged practitioner). Artists such as Christine Borland, Lee Mingwei, Nathan Coley and Turner prizewinner Martin Boyce have taken part, and new work by Alberta Whittle will be unveiled on 1 June.
Sophie Crichton-Stuart, Chair of the Trust, says: “The vision is to provide a programme of internationally recognised excellence within the cultural sector in Argyll and Bute, and Scotland. It adds a further dimension to the context of the house, gardens, collections and archive, providing a vibrant and interrogative dialogue with the historical sites and retaining a longstanding spirit of philanthropy. The Trust does not collect contemporary art; its aim is to enable artists to make new work.”
Meanwhile, the Glenfiddich whisky distillery in Morayshire is preparing for the arrival of six artists from all over the world for its annual Artists in Residence Programme. The project, which started in 2002, is one of the largest privately-funded artists residency programmes in the UK, supported to the tune of £130,000 per annum by the family-run company which makes Glenfiddich, W. Grant and Sons. Artists spend three months at the distillery and receive a £15,000 stipend.
Andy Fairgrieve, coordinator of the Artists in Residence programme, says: “Charles Gordon, who is the great grandson of William Grant, felt it would be nice for the company to build an art collection. Instead of going to an auction and starting to buy, or commissioning artists to make work, we decided that the residency programme would be a more stable way forward. Bringing artists here parallels the fact that Glenfiddich is enjoyed around the world.”
While the artists are invited from countries which are key markets for whisky, and each artist accedes a work to the growing collection and takes part in exhibition on site, Fairgrieve says the residency is not driven by marketing. “I remember the brand ambassadors saying the artists should do something with Glenfiddich bottles or the stag [the whisky’s logo]. If we’d done that we wouldn’t be going 22 years later.
“The guidelines are simple: create a work based on your experience at Glenfiddich. That’s another enjoyable part, each artist has a different take on being here, and they always come up with some amazing individual takes.”
Joe Grieve: The Other Side, is at Colstoun House until 19 May; Inception Art Show is at Dalkeith Palace until 12 May, with a Family Day on 11 May, tickets to the show cost £3; for more information on the programme at Marchmont House see www.hugoburgefoundation.org/events; Jupiter Artland opens for the summer on 11 May, tickets £11.80, www.jupiterartland.org. Alberta Whittle exhibition at Mount Stuart opens on 1 Jun; Artists at Glenfiddich exhibitions at the Dufftown distillery open on 27th July and 30 August.
