Making Local Artists Visible

Many factors go into visibility for those in the arts.

Having money helps—whether that’s disposable income to support artistic practice outside a nine-to-five, or enough financial security not to need one at all. Time poverty is another barrier: when bills go up but wages don’t, people work longer hours and have less time for their practice. 

Carers and people with dependants often have other priorities that come before applying to every open call. Disability can also affect how much energy someone has to make work that becomes publicly visible. 

 And then there’s access.

While I can’t fix the cost-of-living crisis or magically enable a universal basic income or free childcare etc, I have enough experience in art to know I could improve access, even a tiny bit.  

In 2022, I was working at Generator Projects gallery in Dundee revamping their community space. I’d done my Masters in Dundee and then started working, teaching life drawing and other drawing classes in the city.

When I was programming projects or sitting in meetings where others were programming, we had to find artists to commission, and it was the same names coming up all the time. 

People would say “they would be great for that!” And often they would be great for that, but we knew they’d be great for that because they can afford a website or can afford to dedicate time to making canvas or graphics for their work, or they can come to every opening at the gallery situated in the more affluent west end of Dundee. 

 We often had open calls for artists with a simple form for artists to fill in, then would programme the responses to appear in a spreadsheet. 

We kept the spreadsheets private, as they were just for us to consider each artist’s response, but - I thought, if I made a public spreadsheet; everyone could consider the artists.

So, in January 2023, the DAD (Dundee Artists Database) was born. 

 A free to use, free to search, free to be a part of, to benefit from a digital Yellow Pages - no subscription fee, never take a penny off you, totally voluntarily ran and totally voluntary to be a part of. 

As an extra benefit, the DAD provided us with a black and white list of artists to point at and use as evidence if organisations who’d drummed up a reputation for nepotism claimed their pals were the only artists available.  

The DAD is also a living record of what's going on in Dundee creatively: who's doing what and why, what are artists responding to. 

Artists know that often we respond to the world, and then history is rewritten to paint those in power in a kinder light. With a living record of what artists are responding to, it’s a bit harder for history to be rewritten.

 Around the same time as the DAD launched, my soon-to-be good friend Hayley Jane Dawson started the Scottish Working Class Network. 

 With just 12% of people in the arts coming from working class communities, their Instagram platform attempted to raise visibility of these artists and level the playing field. 

 Myself and Hayley became fast friends, and together we launched the Scottish Working Class Database in May 2026. 

 Same idea as the DAD but this time nationwide, again to benefit and connect artists but also make it easier for them to find some visibility and, hopefully, paid opportunities. It would provide a database for institutions, arts organisations to look at when trying to programme events or projects. 

 Shortly after, I created the Edinburgh Creative Database with the help of Edinburgh’s Embassy Gallery. This is where I did my undergraduate degree so it felt fitting that as I started making regional databases, Edinburgh would be one of the first, especially considering we were in the run up to the Fringe where the city gets flooded with fantastic creatives, but local artists rarely see the benefit.

 In late July 2026, I launched the West Dunbartonshire Creatives Database, with the help of Clydesider Creative CIC. 

 The Vale is where I’m from, so of course West Dunbartonshire was going to be one of the top regional databases on my list. 

 The WDCD is the same format as the DAD, ECD and SWCD - a free to use, free to search, always available, public database for artists to use to connect to each other, for visibility, for public record, and hopefully paid work.  

If you’re an artist from West Dunbartonshire just scan the QR code and follow the links to add your details. 

 And if you are looking to commission artwork or artists - please keep checking the database and do support the many talented creatives who live here in West Dunbartonshire!