Woodend Arts Limited

Woodend Arts Limited (WAL) is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. It succeeded Woodend Arts Association in April 2011, and inherited the Woodend Barn, a flexible performing arts venue which includes the Lang Byre Gallery, a small but beautiful space for visual art exhibitions and art workshops. The Woodend Barn has been operated by Woodend Arts since 1994.

Through a high level of local and national support, the buildings have been substantially improved and a diverse arts programme has developed. A network of affiliated groups has grown, allowing volunteers to support and manage those areas that hold most resonance for them. The affiliates include Woodend Music Society, sound, Third Stage, Woodend Allotments, Sideline Multi-Arts and Lang Byre Gallery.

WAL holds a sixty year lease on Woodend Barn. It maintains and manages the Barn and Gallery arts spaces and facilitates a substantial programme of events, performances and workshops. Barn events include contemporary and classical music concerts, dance performances, traditional and folk music, opera and theatre productions from both local and national companies, children’s events, comedy, films and art and craft workshops. The Barn is also home to North East Arts Touring (NEAT) and Growing Audiences North East (GANE).

The Barn supports Folk Session Nights held regularly at Crathes Hall, and storytelling, writing and poetry workshops. The Lang Byre Gallery hosts several visual art exhibitions each year, including collaborations with local schools, art colleges and artists associations. The Barn is also developing a programme of outreach events in Aberdeenshire communities.

A copy of the Accounts from 2010 can be downloaded here and our AGM minutes here.

Woodend Arts Limited Board Members 

Mark Hope - Chairman

Mark has masters degrees in engineering (Imperial College, 1976) and management (London Business School, 1991). He was General Manager and UK Director of Enterprise Oil plc (1992–99) and a director of Shell UK (1999–2002). During 2001–3 was a member of the Scottish Executive’s Cabinet Sub-Committee on Sustainable Development. From 2003–7, in collaboration with Jonathon Porritt and Forum for the Future, he helped develop and deliver Sustainability Masterclasses as part of Shell’s leadership training.  

Mark moved to a part-time advisory post with Shell in 2002 to allow time for his work at Woodend Arts and, from 2004, the sound festival. Since 2007, he has worked almost full-time as a volunteer with only non-executive roles in industry. Mark helped found Woodend Arts Association in 1994 and has been Chairman and acting CEO since 1999. 

Mark has been involved in the arts since childhood studies in cello and singing and he helped found The Speedwell Trust, a small music therapy charity, in 1985. He believes that creativity is essential for human happiness, so engagement with the arts should be available to everyone throughout their lives. Mark is a director of sound festival (www.sound-scotland.co.uk) which he helped found in 2004, and non-executive director of Fairfield Energy Limited.

Sue Paterson - Secretary

Sue was born and brought up in South America. She has a BSc in Physics from Imperial College London and a PhD in Marine Geophysics from Trinity College Cambridge. She joined Shell as an explorer in 1981, and worked in Oman, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Norway before transferring to Aberdeen in 1999, where she was appointed Shell UK's New Business Development Director in 2002. She took a broadening assignment as Shell Upstream's Talent, Learning and Resourcing Manager for Europe and subsequently was responsible for all Shell's exploration and production non-operated joint ventures in the UK, as well as a Director on the Norske Shell Board. Since leaving Shell in 2010, she has been involved in various ventures based in UK, including being Director on the Board of the British Geological Survey and running her own consultancy. She has been Chairman of the Board of a cancer charity based in Aberdeen (CLAN) since 2007. Sue has been involved in the Woodend Barn since 2008, and is currently Secretary to the Board. For Sue, activities in the Barn are about contributing to the local community’s quality of life and well-being. This involves activities in the arts, learning, environment, food and health. Her aspiration is that the Barn is seen as a flagship demonstration of how to do business in a different way by unlocking the local community's energy to look after and develop itself.

Tony Brown - Treasurer

Tony graduated from Liverpool University in Engineering and then spent his working life in engineering, construction and project management in many countries before settling in Banchory in 1995, following a posting to Aberdeen. He became a trustee of Woodend Arts Association in March 2009 and is Treasurer for the WAL Board. 

Tony has had a lifelong interest in the arts, especially theatre, opera, classical music and art. He spent a large amount of time when younger both acting in and directing plays in amateur theatre in the UK and overseas. He was attracted to Woodend Arts by his belief that the Barn adds immeasurably to Banchory’s cultural and entertainment life and his wish to see it continue to expand its scope, reach and excellence in serving the local as well as the wider North East Scotland community.

Anne Douglas

Anne is a visual artist and research professor in fine art at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.  Her research focuses on the dynamic role that artists play in society across all art forms, working co-creatively with organisations. In 2000 she initiated and has led the On the Edge research programme at Grays School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen working within a network of international artists on art and ecology, artistic leadership, contemporary art and remote and rural cultures, the aesthetics and ethics of working in public. From 2008-2011 Anne has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Orpheus Research Centre in Music, Ghent, Belgium. She joined the WAL Board in May 2011.

Fiona Hope

Fiona studied Education and Dance at Goldsmiths College(1975) and has a Masters degree in Education and Psychology from the Institute of Education in London (1985). She has been a primary school teacher and deputy head-teacher in London, a special needs teacher in Aberdeenshire and a part-time lecturer in Music and Drama in Education at the University of Aberdeen. Her specialism is music and drama improvisation. Fiona was a founder member of Woodend Arts Association in 1994 and Convenor 1996-99. She co-founded Woodend Music Society in 1998, the Lang Byre Gallery and Sideline Multi Arts in 2000 and Woodend Allotments in 2006.

She is involved in programming workshops, education and outreach for Woodend Barn. She leads Singing for Joy and is studying oil painting, print making and growing vegetables. She believes that the arts is an essential part of the life of a thriving community and that everyone can be an artist.