We are sorry to be saying goodbye this week to our incredible producer Aidan Nicol, who is moving on after three years at Manipulate Arts to take on an exciting new role with the Southern Uplands Partnership, in the Scottish Borders where she is based.
Starting in summer 2021 as our Festival and Projects Manager, Aidan became our Producer in 2022 after a brief stint as Interim Director to cover maternity leave. She has brought strategic vision, creativity, productivity and warmth to all her work, and has played a major role in some of the significant changes and achievements of Manipulate Arts over the last three years.
In particular, Aidan has led on the creation and strategic development of our Captivate programme, which is entering its third year and has enabled thousands of people across Scotland to participate in brilliant, high-quality and accessible puppetry, animation and visual theatre. Aidan has also produced three international festival editions, elevated our work in the areas of sustainability and accessibility, forged a huge list of collaborative partnerships across and beyond the arts and initiated dynamic new international projects.
We will miss Aidan’s compassion, intelligence and integrity, along with her constant patience and good humour under pressure. We want to thank her for her amazing contribution to Manipulate Arts, and wish her the best of luck in her new role.
We are delighted to welcome Siobhan Clark to the role of Producer on an interim basis; Siobhan has started with us this week and will be in post until the end of March. There are more exciting new staff appointments to announce next week – watch this space for more details about the Manipulate team.
The last three years with Manipulate Arts has been a whirlwind of exciting, inspiring projects and opportunities for me in the world of visual theatre! It’s been so fantastic working with our team through some big changes for the organisation and being part of three festivals, a rebrand, European partnership projects, programming trips to some fantastic international festivals, developing our Animated Film offer and launching Captivate over this time.
Working together with Dawn, whose energy and empathy has made this a really special and vibrant place to work, I’ve been able to bring to life a new engagement approach that I really believe in for Manipulate Arts and the communities we’ve had a chance to connect with. The passionate people, arts and community organisations I’ve had the pleasure to meet and work with across Scotland and Europe, over the last few years have endlessly amazed me and I look forward to seeing what comes next from Manipulate Arts and the innovative artists we support!
It’s been an incredible few years – visual theatre and puppetry have inspired, amazed and surprised me more than I ever anticipated when I started- and there’s no going back now – I’m a puppetry fan for life! – Aidan Nicol
Top banner image from Lyth Arts Forest Day - Image by Claire Hughes