New Seatree artists retreat- help needed

For years now, we have been trying to get a project over the line. It has often seemed like it was never going to happen, but now we are finally on the cusp of making it reality. When we moved to our house, we were not looking for lots of land. Our brief was simple – a smaller house, with room for a pottery studio in which we could work and run workshops, and a small vegetable patch to grow as much food as we could. The aim was for a simple lifestyle, as environmentally sustainable and low impact as possible. Things did not quite work out in the way we planned… Firstly, we ended up buying a house that came with a large area of overgrown woodland. When we moved, it was impossible to explore most of it, choked as it was by invasive rhodedendron and buddleia. I felt the responsibiity to care for this land keenly – to take out the invasive species and let the old oak trees breathe. I have since spent a long time and lots of hard work trying to do just that – and slowly it has started to transform the woodland back to what it always should have been- a pocket of beautiful oak rainforest, perched above the Clyde estuary…

The other thing that did not go to plan was that we had an unfortunate brush with officialdom. When we moved to our new house, we asked a series of questions of Argyll and Bute planning department about what permissions we needed to obtain to work from home and run pottery workshops for members of the public. We were told (by e-mail) that we required none. Accordingly, we built workshops and pretty soon a third of our income was made up of people paying for pottery workshops. Unfortunately, following a complaint from a neighbour about us running a business from home, the planning department conducted an investigation, and decided that although our activities were not in breach of planning, the building we had erected as our workshop was not deemed to pass building regulations for recieving members of the public. We appealed, on the basis that we had previously been informed by e-mail that building regulations were not required, but to no avail. Conspiracy theorists might well enjoy the fact that our beloved council deleted all documents and e-mails relating to our enquiries, meaning that the ombudsman was not able to rule in our favour. Such is life. We adapted and moved on…

My mum died. Here she is, sitting in a garden, her favourite place in the world. She never got to see our new garden, here in the Clyde, being too ill to travel north. When it came to a share of the small amount of inheritance from the sale of her house that was coming to us, I wanted to make something that might form a lasting memorial. Could we use it to build a new workshop? Something that enhanced the woodland, built from sustainable materials and using low impact construction methods? Even better, could we make a space in the woodland that might become a haven for people – for artists and makers to spent time creating and recharging their passion? Fortunately, we have a friend who runs a company who have the skills to make something like this happen. Without Stuart and his company Fynewood, we would have given up long ago as we have tried to navigate the labyrinth of planning. Along with Ronan (who handles design and planning) we came up with something…

We now have planning consent to put up two small buildings – one a micro-lodge with shower and amenities, the other a workshop with disabled access loo. We intend to make the whole site fully accessible to people in wheelchairs by putting in a graded pathway and decking. We will then use the premises in a number of different ways;

• A place for people to make artist retreats. People will be able to book both the accommodation and the workshop for either four, seven or eleven nights.
• We intend to make some slots available at low/no cost to artists who would otherwise not be able to participate.
• Our own workshops. Pottery, retreat days, poetry and writing days.
• Guest workshops. Working with our network of artists and creatives, to host a wide range of arts, crafts and writing.
• Bookings by other artists to run their own events.

As you can imagine, the costs of making this happen is a real challenge – particularly as these costs have been rising constantly, making everything much more expensive than when we started this process. Conditions imposed by the planning department have raised these costs further – we are still negotiating some of these conditions. Despite this, we are pressing forward, determined and very grateful for the support of Fynewood. But now we need your help. Firstly, there is this survey. If you are an artist, and you have ever taken, or would like to take, an artists retreat, then we would love to hear from you. If you have undertaken workshops, would like to start or attend more, we would love to hear from you. If you have run workshops yourself, we would love to hear from you.  

 

Crowdfunding

The next way you might be able to help is to support this project more directly – specifically with the accessibility side of the project. Feel no pressure, but if this project connects with things that you find important and you have some spare cash to put towards it, then we would be most grateful. Back in 2020, we were amazed when our crowdfunded ‘shop shed’ was so well supported. We decided to reach out once more to our wonderful supporters. We have set up a new crowd funding portal, with a set of rewards as before – both physical things, but also the opportunity to book in advance as a way of investing in the future. You can take a look here. Creative Scotland have a system of match funding crowdfunded donations (up to a combined total of £10K) so your contributions might count for double! Help us make this plan a reality. Help us create a space for hospitality and creativity, Let us bring good things out of this good ground, together.