Writers and Contributors
Editors and Writers
Ian Sclater, Magazine Editor, Writer and Travel Writer
Ian Sclater is the Editor of Artmag, the largest circulation art magazine in Scotland and Northeast England. Along with a thorough knowledge of the domestic art, craft and design scene, he has travelled extensively researching and writing about international art. He has visited hundreds of art museums and independent galleries in some 30 cities in 20 countries.
Ian has worked over four decades in the publishing, marketing and advertising industries in the UK and USA and has written extensively for consumer and trade magazines, newspapers and websites on a wide range of topics, including art and culture, travel, hotels, food and beverage, conferences and media. He currently lives in Edinburgh.
David White, Website Editor, Social Media Manager and Writer
David is ArtMag’s new Online Editor; since February 2019 he has been an enthusiastic blogger, drawing on a long experience in the worlds of visual art and music, and he’s keen to tell you all about the exhibitions and performances he’s seen! A lifelong music fan, he loves songwriting and playing guitar, recording and publishing his own material as Boy:48 (soundcloud.com/boy-48). He recently contributed a chapter to Mark Fisher’s book on the band XTC, ‘What Do You Call That Noise?’.
With a degree in Information Graphics, for many years he worked at Edinburgh’s fire service, managing a multi-disciplinary team. He took early retirement four years ago to concentrate on developing Creative Exchange – Scotland’s hub for public-sector creative professionals – and lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two grown-up daughters. He posts on Instagram as @bluebotl.
Susan Mansfield, Special Features
Susan Mansfield is a writer and journalist who has been writing about art in Scotland since the early 1990s. She was an Arts writer for The Scotsman from 2001 until 2013, when she was shortlisted for Interviewer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. She has been an art critic for The Scotsman since 2007, expanding her brief to become a theatre critic during the Fringe and a member of the Scotsman’s Fringe First panel.
Susan loves to travel and has been fortunate enough to visit leading galleries and museums in Europe and North America, always seeking to broaden and deepen her knowledge. She has been a guest on Arts programmes such as BBC Scotland’s Afternoon Show and Radio 4’s Front Row. Her favourite month of the year is August, when the world’s biggest arts festival arrives on the doorstep. She lives in Dunfermline and is also a playwright and award-winning poet. On Twitter @wordsmansfield.
Contributors
Viv Develin, Art and Travel
Vivien Devlin is an arts and travel writer in Edinburgh, specialising in hotel and restaurant reviews, city guides, and features on touring Scotland, Highlands and Islands, food and drink as well as cruising adventures from the Hebrides to circumnavigating the world by ship. She also loves to review Art galleries, theatre and dance year round and a diverse range of performances, exhibitions and literary events during the Edinburgh Festivals.
Books include I Spy Edinburgh (for children) and “Edinburgh and East Coast Scotland,” a travel guidebook to Edinburgh, East Lothian, Scottish Borders, Fife and Perthshire. This is a foodie and cultural journey highlighting the best places to stay and eat what to see and do, heritage and leisure. Vivien is chair of the Judges of the Scottish Hotel Awards, (now in its 14th year) and regarded as the Oscars of the Scottish hospitality industry.
Gordon Reid
Gordon is an Aberdonian, but now lives in Glasgow having first come to the city as a trainee architect during his studies at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture in Aberdeen.
He worked as an architect in a large Glasgow practice for some years, and, after further post-graduate study at the University of Strathclyde, specialised on his own in producing 3D architectural visualisations. He has also spent time in the retail business, working at Habitat and John Lewis.
Gordon’s earliest gallery visiting memories are from childhood, at Aberdeen Art Gallery, which he is now happy to see re-opened and so beautifully updated.
Travelling to enjoy art and design has always been a significant interest for Gordon and his wife, and they have been fortunate to visit many galleries, large and small, across the UK, North America and Europe. A good gallery café and shop is a bonus often enjoyed too.
Gordon also likes to see the Scottish Art School end-of-year shows, so important to the continuing vitality of art and design practice in Scotland and beyond.
He is a lover of live music including Americana, early Rock ‘n’ Roll, Folk and Jazz, and plays guitar for his own enjoyment.
Malcolm McGonigle, Performing Arts and Special Events
Malcolm has written extensively about food and culture for over twenty years contributing to many Scottish magazines, newspapers and publications. He now splits his time between attending theatre, opera, dance and music productions; eating in top Scottish restaurants, and writing for TV and radio. It’s a tough gig but somebody’s got to do it.
His recent big hits include episodes of children’s TV spy drama ‘MI High’, scriptwriter on Radio Scotland comedy show Des Clark Exposed and writer for the smash BBC panel game ‘The Dog Ate My Homework’. It won a BAFTA. Malcolm has also been a freelance contributor to the List Eating and Drinking Guide for fifteen years. He currently lives Glasgow’s west end where he makes full use of the dynamic cultural landscape and excellent eating spots.
Anna Shevetovska
Anna has obtained a master’s degree in art history from University of St Andrews.
Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, she worked for several years developing her
hometown’s art scene — assisting with exhibition planning, coordinating a
photography fair and interviewing leading figures in the Ukrainian art sphere. Her
role consists of acting as a bridge between audiences and art, revealing art and
design from new perspectives in accessible and informative ways. One such avenue
has been co-hosting an art segment on university’s radio ‘STAR’.
While studying product design at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) in Milan for
her undergraduate degree, she became a fluent Italian speaker. Craft, design and
architecture are part and parcel of her research field. In her spare time Anna enjoys
sketching both indoors and outdoors (whether it’s people, animals, architecture or
nature), as well as going for long walks to recharge. She is also a qualified scuba-
diver.
Amy Miles
Having lived in Baku, Azerbaijan and attended an International multi-cultural primary school for three years, Amy was brought up with an awareness of culture on a global scale. She once again benefitted from experiencing different and exciting cultures when living in both Copenhagen and Amsterdam.
Amy has completed a Bachelor’s in History of Art (University of Glasgow) and a Master’s in Museum Studies (University of Amsterdam). She has also gained professional experience working at the Hunterian Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Scottish National Galleries and Lyon & Turnbull Auction House. Amy is passionate about art and culture and wants to share this through her exhibition reviews.
In her spare time Amy enjoys cooking, reading and exploring Scotland.
Joanna Zuchowska, Theatre
Joanna is a recent GCU graduate in Media and Communications, who is starting her new adventure in Edinburgh very soon. She will be attending Napier University to study Publishing and to explore the city even more thoroughly. Joanna has always had a passion for photography, film, books and travel. Since a young age, she has been involved with the world of arts through her father’s art gallery in Poland, which made her seek creativity in everything she was doing. She loves the atmosphere of museums and art galleries realising that they calm her down and allow her mind to slow down.
Having moved to Scotland at the age of twelve she loves planning new adventures and discovering new places. Her best friend is her camera which she takes everywhere she goes.
Talia Blatt
Talia Blatt is a recent graduate of Harvard College, where she studied integrative biology, history, and Chinese. She is currently based in Glasgow on a Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship, training as a stained glass artist at the Glasgow School of Art and working as a stained glass guide at Glasgow Cathedral.
Talia has published science-based policy writing with the United Nations, cultural criticism in The Drift, and has won awards for her fiction, including Harvard’s Cyrilly Abels prize for best undergraduate short story. In her spare time she enjoys traveling to see art (old and new), hosting elaborate dinner parties, volunteering, and generally being near bodies of water.
ARTMAG BLOGGER, VISUAL ARTS, Julie Boyne
Julie graduated in History of Modern Art, Design and Film at Northumbria University, then spent years as a researcher and copywriter. She went off to sea on an adventure, working on cruise ships around the world, returning to Edinburgh to become a travel advisor. In her spare time, she creates Artravelist, an online travel guide for the creative and curious. She can lose herself for hours in art galleries and museums getting meditative and mind-blown, whilst forgetting to eat, and then mistaking it for Stendhal Syndrome. The rest of her time is spent on photography and planning her next trip. She is a published poet.
Artmag Blogger, Leo Sartain
Leo Sartain is an Edinburgh based art dealer, writer and podcast host. He is passionate about working with contemporary artists and supporting the arts wherever possible. Having completed a degree in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, Leo now works to showcase art around the city in a variety of venues. He also sells artists work through The Rafiki Gallery, which organises pop-up exhibitions. Alongside this he hosts the ‘Curating Conversation’ podcast in which he chats to an assortment of guests who have direct experience in the arts, in order to hear their stories and inspire others.
In a less serious capacity, Leo is also a keen sourdough baker and painter. Much of his free time is spent teaching others to bake bread, playing music, exploring the outdoors, or trying to stop himself buying yet more art. Having moved a lot growing up, Leo has been exposed to many different cultures and loves to discover more whenever he can.
You can find his podcast on Instagram @Curatingconversation and his Art Dealing @the_rafiki_gallery
Performing Arts Editor and Culinary Arts Blogger, Rowan Anderson
Rowan is a self-confessed food obsessive; she spends most of her time thinking about food, loitering around the world food aisles, cooking up a storm or eating out in fine dining establishments across Scotland. Rowan worked in professional kitchens during her formative years, which sparked her love of food and cooking. Committed to enthusing others to enjoy cooking, she shares recipes and journals on her website rosierowan.com.
After studying the Anthropology of Art for a semester at University, Rowan pursued a career in arts and museums after graduating, working across Glasgow Museums and in Clydebank Museum. Her love of creative arts and food means taking on the role of Culinary Arts and Culture Editor for Artmag is a very happy combination of interests, and perhaps in part explains her enthusiasm for pre-theatre dining.
ArtMag Blogger, Teresa Lillis
Teresa is a recent graduate in Business Management and Spanish from the University of St. Andrews. Originally from Austin, Texas, Teresa has always been hugely immersed in the arts throughout her upbringing. From contemporary visual exhibitions to live music, her passion for the arts spans across all mediums. It is through this dedication that Teresa hopes to pursue a path in culturally engaged organisations.
Apart from currently working as the Gallery Assistant for the Sproson Gallery in St. Andrews, Teresa has had experience in this sector as the Exhibitions Intern at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan as well. She now plans on working at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice as a Graduate Intern. She absolutely loves cooking, travelling and watching classic films.
ArtMag Blogger, Flora Zajicek
Flora is a freelance arts journalist and podcast producer. Having worked internationally in Paris, Athens, Sydney and always returning to Edinburgh between times, her work explores the human stories all around us. With an MA in Art History from University of Edinburgh, she’s a self-professed culture vulture and writes reviews, features and interviews about all things art. As well as this, she has worked extensively with NGOs and communities internationally focussing on rights for refugees, in particular those travelling along the Balkan Route. For more information on that find her podcast People on the Move.
Find her on Instagram and Twitter @florazajicek
ArtMag Blogger, Jelena Sofronijevic
Jelena Sofronijevic (@jelsofron) is an audio producer and freelance journalist, who makes content at the intersections of intercultural political history and the arts. They are the producer of EMPIRE LINES, a podcast which uncovers the unexpected flows of Empires through artworks.
Published by the Political Studies Association, their undergraduate dissertation uses contemporary political satires to uniquely unpack Tito’s socialist Yugoslavia. They also presented an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Four Thought (September 2020) on modern Yugoslav diasporic identity, later selected for BBC Radio 4’s Pick of the Week and featured on BBC Radio Shropshire. Their other projects include The Arts Show, INDIAscussion, and Liberating Sustainability.