FOURTEEN art students from six Scottish art colleges have been selected to be part of the Scotland + Venice presentation of a solo show of new work by Rachel Maclean at the 57th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, from May to November. The eleven undergraduates and three graduates will act as ambassadors for the show in Venice.

The schools involved are Borders College, City of Glasgow College, Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Edinburgh College of Art, The Glasgow School of Art and Aberdeen’s Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University.

Students in Venice will be involved in welcoming visitors, assisting with events and screenings, informing visitors about Rachel Maclean and her new work, and maintaining the project’s online presence.

This Scotland + Venice Professional Development Programme began fourteen years ago in 2003. Since then, the programme has provided the opportunity for over eighty students from eight colleges to spend time in Venice.

scotlandandvenice.com

COINCIDING with Burns Night, the Scottish painter Peter Doig was the fourth artist to receive the annual Art Icon award.

Doig, pictured, was presented with the award at Whitechapel Gallery by Iwona Blazwick, director of Whitechapel Gallery, and Nadja Swarovski, a member of the Swarovski Executive Board.

The Whitechapel Gallery’s annual Art Icon event is created in partnership with Swarovski.

Peter Doig was born in Edinburgh in 1959 and raised in Trinidad and Canada before moving to London in 1979 to study. He currently lives and works between Trinidad, New York, Dusseldorf and London.

Doig has been the subject of a number of major exhibitions worldwide, including a mid-career survey organised by Tate Britain in 2008 and a major exhibition in 2013 at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.

Doig served as a Trustee of the Tate from 1995 to 2000, and in 2008 was awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize of the Society for Modern Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne.

whitechapelgallery.org

THE Scottish Film Talent Network (SFTN) has announced the five directors selected for the FIVE@5 For Women programme.

The programme supports five Scottish-based female filmmakers through the production of their five-minute short films.

Actress Maryam Hamidi will make her first work as a director on film, social worker turned author Sara Jane Kirkwood will make her directorial debut, Gaynor Macfarlane, an established radio director, will direct her first short film, the BAFTA-nominated documentary director Lou McLoughlan will direct her first fiction work for the screen, and artist filmmaker Rosie Toner will direct I Am Not, in support of her first feature film.

The directors will be awarded a £5,000 bursary towards the production of their films, which will allow them to develop their projects.

SFTN is a consortium made up of the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), DigiCult, and Hopscotch Films and is led by Talent Development Executive Claudia Yusef.

scottishfilmtalent.com