We have enlisted the help of local BAS9 Ambassadors to help us make connections between groups and communities and this major exhibition of the best recent art from the UK during its first visit to Aberdeen. Follow our Ambassadors on social media @AbdnArtMuseums #BritishArtShow9
Meet our BAS9 Aberdeen Ambassadors . . .
Bart Grabski
Bart is working as a Social Media Ambassador for British Art Show 9. Within his role, he generates content for social channels and connects communities online. Bart is studying towards a degree in Public Relations at Robert Gordon University. Previously he studied at the University of the Arts London and School of Textiles and Design at Heriot-Watt University in the United Arab Emirates and Scotland. He uses the knowledge gained at university to create a bridge between artists and the public. He is a global citizen and highly involved with activism, during his previous roles at RGU:Union as Vice-President for Community and International. Bart also helps with creating online content for Look Again, which is a creative unit based at Gray’s School of Art. Bart’s favourite aspect of contemporary art is its subjectivity and freedom for interpretations as well as diversity in mediums and forms.
Reema Shoaib
Reema is an arts enthusiast, and tries to promote arts and culture in the international community living in Aberdeen. A recent graduate from the University of Aberdeen her course in Visual Culture and Arts Management led her to intern at Aberdeen Art Gallery. With this experience she is working as an Ambassador for British Art Show 9 and promotes the exhibition and activities on her Facebook Page ChaiTime. Reema’s unique feature for the promotion is using Live broadcasts and interviews from the venue.
Rosie Leavett
Rosie is delighted to be a BAS9 Ambassador. Now retired, she spent her working life in the social care sector mainly with older people and especially people with dementia and their family carers. Her aim has always been to enable people to live life to the best of their ability and she firmly believes that the arts in the widest sense have a vital role to play here.
Rosie has been a volunteer with Aberdeen Art Gallery for several years and she's really enjoyed encouraging older people, in particular, to engage with the Gallery, sometimes for the first time in their lives. The main thing she has learnt from this is the value of focussing on just a few works at a time and to really think about how we respond to them - whether that's positively or negatively. She now tries to resist the temptation to take in a whole exhibition at one go! if she can!
BAS9 is a new experience of art for many people (herself included) and she'll be supporting opportunities for older people to get involved. Rosie will be helping to run relaxed coffee morning tours of the Show and she has also contributed to a film about BAS9 which will be available to groups like care homes, who can't get to the Gallery easily. As Rosie says, "You're never too old to learn or to have an opinion!"
Alan Johnstone
Alan is an accountant by profession and when he took early retirement almost six years ago he decided to take a different direction and undertake some volunteering duties in Aberdeen. As both his parents had dementia he approached Alzheimer Scotland, who gave him the opportunity to join their football memories programme. They use old programmes, film clips, photos and other memorabilia to stimulate discussion and trigger personal memories of football in a relaxed, welcoming and fun environment, meeting four times per month at Pittodrie Stadium (pre-covid).
It quickly became apparent to him that so much more could be done in the city to broaden a memories programme by working in partnership with other organisations, including local and social history in addition to sport, and by offering sessions which are dementia-friendly rather than dementia-exclusive. AAGM were able to offer him all of these and he has now been volunteering for us for over three years, contributing to our Our Aberdeen series, being a joint leader of tours around Aberdeen Treasure Hub and helping out with ad-hoc duties. Over the past year Our Aberdeen has moved to an online format and this has enabled him to consider how in future we can combine that with the resumption of face to face meetings to best serve our community.
Other organisations he volunteers with are NHS Grampian, Aberdeen FC Heritage Trust and Football Memories Scotland and he finds that by combining knowledge, access to materials and working with all my wonderful volunteer and staff colleagues that he is able to support so many people in a very satisfying and rewarding manner.
Vladas Laukys
Vladas was born in 1984 in Lithuania, Mazeikiai. Lithuania was a part of the Soviet Union until 1990. Brought up in a working-class family, Vladas childhood was influenced by Soviet communism. But luckily union collapsed, and democracy replaced the old regime. .
From a young age, Vladas was influenced and inspired by the culture of the streets. 90’s Hip-Hop music, skateboarding, dance and graffiti scenes left an imprint on his soul. Shifting to Reggae music and Rastafari culture in later teens, Vladas kept the good vibes running. He became passionate about writing rap/poetry and performing. In 2005 he emigrated to Scotland, Aberdeen as an economic migrant and by 2011 he was married, with his first child, studying mechanical engineering and organising reggae music nights in Aberdeen. Joined an oil company in 2014 and worked there as a Lead Pressure Testing Technician until 2019.
In 2017 Vladas volunteered with several festivals in Aberdeen. The inspiration he received was enormous and powerful. To a point of realisation that creativity is the natural and essential element of human existence. This revelation encouraged Vlad to change his perception of his own existence and it led him to become an artist. Developing practice is based on life progression of past, present and future. Mediums of choice vary from the stencil and spray paint to pallet and brushes to pencil and notepad.
Vladas is a multi-instrumentalist when it comes to art and creativity with a strong passion for painting and contemporary art forms. In his art, he explores reality, based on scientific proven or unproven theories in combination with biological studies, quantum physics and politics. We live in chaos and Vlad is here to study it.
Vladas will be helping out with the Mobile Art School and working with his local community to engage them with the show.
Fiona Burrows
Fiona left her career as a primary school teacher to pursue her dream of becoming a full time visual artist. She studied painting at Leith School of Art for 2 years and recently moved to Aberdeen to attend Gray's School of Art. Having missed the chance to study art at school due to believing she was “not arty”, she is passionate about making Art accessible to children and public audiences, so that others recognise their interests and talents sooner! You can view her work on Instagram or at www.fionaburrowsart.co.uk. She will be brilliant with families and children and will be working with the Mobile Art School and helping to lead Spotlight Tours.
Rita Kermack
Rita is intrigued by geomorphological processes and the way landscapes change. She is fascinated by the edge of our island as a space where land and sea meet. The coast and the intertidal zone are where these changes are most visible and can be observed within a very short period of time.
The intertidal, or littoral zone is an environment of extremes. Only highly specialised life-forms can survive the high salt levels and the perpetual change of the tide. Weather conditions, pollution and other environmental issues can have a detrimental effect on the land, habitats and ecosystems found here. Continuous erosion and sedimentation mean that the coast is in a constant state of flux.
This makes the intertidal zone a fragile and transient space. She is hoping that through a form of mapping, visually recreating habitats and recording her holistic experiences, she can create a sense of place in her work that helps the viewer and herself to understand the vulnerability of our environment and to form a closer connection to it.
Education:
2021: BA (Hons) Painting, Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
2016: HNC, Art and Design, North East Scotland College, Aberdeen
Chris Sansbury & Kevin Mitchell
Kevin Mitchell and Chris Sansbury founded POST from a desire to cut through the noise to share the great things that happen in Aberdeen. They focus on community, culture and the interesting people of the city. The local artists, businesses and charities; photographers, musicians and entertainers; the people at a local level that make a positive impact on our city each and every day. Their monthly newsletter, Your Aberdeen, takes a look at what's been going on in the city from all different angles.
The goal is simple. To use video, audio, writing and social media to amplify the voices in our community, and to ultimately give a platform to Aberdeen folk to engage and tell their own stories.
Recent work includes interviews with Paralympic gold medalist, Neil Fachie; Chef, an Aberdeen rapper who is pushing for success; an article by film director Mark Stirton about the state of high-rise buildings in the city; coverage of Nuart Aberdeen and TEDx Aberdeen, as well as coverage of British Art Show 9. Visit POST Aberdeen to read a great selection of interviews and articles.
Yara Al Radi
Yara is a Young Scot Syrian. She is working towards a Youth Achievement Award through her time as a BAS9 Ambassador.
