We are delighted to announce that the first residencies for artists based in Scotland as part of the Scotland/Japan Residency Exchange Programme have been awarded to the Glasgow-based artist Florence Dwyer and the Edinburgh-based design curator, writer and producer Stacey Hunter.

Florence and Stacey will travel to Japan in January 2019 for eight and six-week residencies respectively with Arts Initiative Tokyo and Creative Residencies in Arita. These residencies are part of a wider residency exchange programme developed collaboratively by Cove Park, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and Hospitalfield with key partners in Japan. The programme marks the British Council’s UK/Japan Season of Culture 2019/2020 and the 2020 Olympic in Tokyo. In 2019 the Scottish partners will welcome artists from Japan to their own residency programmes and, in 2020, a further two artists from Scotland will have the opportunity to work in Japan.

This programme builds upon a residency exchange developed between Cove Park and AIT between 2012 and 2014. Our partnership with ESW and Hospitalfield ensures this project can work with and support more artists and allow those artists from Japan to experience more of Scotland and work directly with some of our leading residency organisations and production facilities.

These first residencies will give Florence and Stacey a unique opportunity to work both in Tokyo and in Arita, the birthplace of Japanese porcelain, and to benefit from the skill and expertise of the ceramicists connected to CRIA’s programme.

We are grateful to AIT, CRIA, British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland for their support and to the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Saga Prefecture International Affairs Division and the Agency of Cultural Affairs, Japan.

Image: The launch of the Scotland/Japan programme at Cove Park, 30 October 2018: (left to right) Laura Simpson (Director, ESW), Stacey Hunter (design curator), Florence Dwyer (artist), Shintaro Tokairin (Project Manager, AIT), Yoriko Ishizawa (Programme Director, CRIA), Lucy Byatt (Director, Hospitalfield), Alexia Holt (Associate Director, Cove Park). Photography: Alan Dimmick.

The Scotland/Japan Residency Exchange Programme is supported in the UK by the British Council/Creative Scotland, the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. We are also grateful to AIT and to CRIA for their support and the support of their own funders.