Woodend Barn has evolved from disused farm buildings which were used for the rehearsals of a community play in 1992. Through several phases of development, the Barn has become the largest multi-arts centre in Aberdeenshire. This has been realised through the combined skills and efforts of many people. Some of these individuals have longstanding associations with the region, others have been more recently drawn here by the pull of the natural environment or through employment with the various industries that have shaped the landscape, culture and economy of the area.
Our community is home to a diversity of skills, ideas and perspectives – both local and global – which inform and make possible the creative work at Woodend Barn.
The construction of a high quality café/bistro (Buchanan’s) in 2010 has brought a new audience and has enhanced the Barn’s standing as a community facility. This contemporary space now also hosts recitals, workshops and partner initiatives such as the Food & Fiddle festival and acts as a direct gateway to the more challenging work presented in the Barn.
The Barn offers a diverse programme covering most art forms - the venue attracts artists of the highest calibre to Banchory and neighbouring Deeside villages where the Barn delivers outreach arts activities.
The Barn is committed to engaging communities through, and at, every layer of the organisation. The principles of equal value and involvement permeate the fabric of our organisation – as staff, engaged residents and Board members each “work”, “volunteer” and “create” aspects of the Barn’s activities. We believe that this way of embracing creative community involvement and engagement at a fundamental level goes far beyond a standard connection with communities as visitors, audiences or outreach participants, and speaks of the values and ethos of our place.
Woodend Barn sustains itself through the inter-connectedness of our workforce. 2 full-time and 5 part-time staff work collaboratively with a core of 50 active volunteers to deliver over 250 performances and workshops each year.
Our organic structure is supported by a number of affiliate groups who devise and curate strands of the programme, drawing upon the knowledge and experience of their individual members. These groups – which include Woodend Music Society (classical music), sound festival (new music) , Woodend Barn Gallery Committee (visual arts) and Third Stage (art and crafts for older people) – operate independently, but feed into the overall programming of the Barn and its spaces, providing significant added value to what we do. The Barn’s work as a whole is supported by our Friends Committee.
We are committed to building our evidence base of the benefits and learning of this way of working with artists and community, exploring it further as a future model of sustainable cultural delivery and sharing this knowledge more widely with cultural partners across Scotland and beyond.
Environmental awareness and education are well established within Woodend Barn, from the sustainable energy efficiencies within our buildings to the establishment of 110 community allotment gardens on site - the largest site of new allotments in Scotland - and our stewardship of the wild and (just commenced) walled gardens, which encircle the Barn itself.
We are developing the ecology/arts strand of our work in collaboration with Anne Douglas, Professor of Research at Grays School of Art, and many others. We are building a network with local, national and international connections to progress these ideas. Cittadellarte has enriched Woodend Barn’s aspiration to further develop its work around arts and ecology, and to explore the possibilities for arts practice and culture to influence a rebalancing of society. This will be one focus of our future work.
