The Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture (RSA) has unveiled the latest details of its £200,000 programme of support for artists working across the whole spectrum of the visual arts in Scotland. The organisation has a proud tradition of promoting excellence in contemporary art and architecture. As well as the three main monetary awards, their programme offers funding opportunities for artists to undertake residencies at venues across Scotland, as well as scholarships which allow undergraduates to spend time studying in Florence, Italy.

Run on a biennial basis, the next round of the RSA Residencies for Scotland programme will launch on the 5 September 2014 and offers £46,000 worth of artist residencies at venues across the length and breadth of Scotland. The main cash awards are: The RSA Morton Award, for lens-based work, of £5,000 and presented each year. The RSA William Littlejohn Award for Excellence and Innovation in Water-based Media is £2,000 and made each year.

The RSA Barns-Graham Travel Award provides a travel and research opportunity for graduating and postgraduate students, through a sum of £2,000 awarded to one artist per year. In addition to the financial awards, the recipients are offered the opportunity to exhibit at the Academy’s prestigious Annual Exhibition and to have one work included into the RSA Collection.

The second strand to the RSA Awards and Opportunities programme is the residency awards. The largest of these is the RSA Residencies for Scotland programme, which operates on a bi-annual basis, offering some £50,000 in total. Applicants submit a proposal and budget, in which they can request funding up to £5,000 per project.

The RSA has 26 partner venues across Scotland, offering expertise in areas such as printmaking, sculpture, glass and environment-based projects. The programme started in 2009 and has to date funded 52 artists to work at venues across the length and breadth of Scotland.

The RSA John Kinross Scholarship to Florence has been part of the Academy’s artist opportunity programme since 1982 and presents ten awards of £2,500 annually. The award is offered to final-year art and architecture undergraduates to spend a six to 12 week period of research and development in the Italian city of Florence.

The RSA also offers the RSA International Residency Award (£6,000); an opportunity for Polish artists to come to Scotland for a three-month period and use the facilities at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. In addition it has a partnership residency with Sabhal Mor Orstaig on Isle of Skye, where artists are encouraged to research the Gaelic culture alongside their general practice.

For further details visit www.royalscottishacademy.org.

Credits
1. Cheryl Field, Untitled. Courtesy of the artist and RSA.

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