The Scottish Government handed over the keys to Shambellie House to Shambellie House Trust on 1st July to enable it to begin a new life as a centre showcasing the rural creative arts community. They are also providing funds from both the Culture and Regeneration budgets to carry out repairs to the house and lodge.
It is planned to start to deliver a range of courses in January delivered by local artists, makers, photographers and practitioners many using the environment, culture, and history of this region as their inspiration.
DGWGO popped along to meet up with trustee Ricky Nolan to find out more about the Trust’s plans.
Ricky said ” Well the plans now are to actually try and attract tutors to Shambellie. We’ve already a really positive response and because we want to be inclusive, we want a greater breadth to creative arts and we’re putting the call out for any interested parties or what you work with Shambellie House”
Well, what we’re looking at is all forms of creative arts and it really is a wide umbrella. It’s all thanks to all people and we’ve got everything from creative and poetry creative writing poetry we’ve got art painting, drawing, we’ve got photography, we’ve got digital imaging, we’ve got quilting textiles and we just love to hear from any tutor who feels they have the skill set and would like to work with us.
Well now that we’ve actually got ownership of the building the work is already planned to start in the next few weeks with a view to courses running in February of 2022 so it’s a really exciting time for us here at the house”.
With grants in place from Hugh Fraser Foundation, Holywood Trust, Lottery Community Fund, and the Dumfries & Galloway Coastal Communities fund the Trust still faced a shortfall for the conversion costs until the South of Scotland Enterprise (SoSE) agreed to provide support bringing the total to just over £150,000. This will allow initial internal works to be done but the Trust are still fundraising to ensure the centre can offer a full range of courses.
You can contact the team at Shambellie House via their website or by email [email protected]
