The Steeple is an award-winning arts facility in Newburgh, a picturesque town on the south bank of the River Tay in north east Fife.
The original building comprised of the Town Hall and Steeple dates back to 1808, and is situated on Newburgh’s High Street. Originally used as the central municipal building for the town, The Steeple would be used as a corn exchange, a theatre and a council meeting point before Wasps acquired the building and completed refurbishment in 2008. The original Palladian window is now encompassed wholly within the stairwell and the existing stone wall, with all its history of previous alterations left exposed and a view of the courtyard in the centre.
Surrounding The Steeple is the town of Newburgh, which is known for its fishing and linen-making industries reaching back centuries. A couple of streets away from the River Tay, the building is neighbours with the local Co-op, the Tayside Institute Community Centre and a coffee shop. Down the street from The Steeple is the Sun Gallery, a small contemporary art gallery and framers that showcases a variety of wok by local artists. Further afield is an eco-refill shop and Lindores Abbey Distillery.
There is a close-knit group of artists that call The Steeple their creative home. Among them is ceramicist and porcelain specialist Gavin Burnett, who makes beautiful functional objects using the battuto glass-cutting technique to create eye-catching designs.
Carolyne Nurse lives in Newburgh and works with washed up seaweed from beaches in Fife and Angus. She will receive specialist training in working with metal and electro-forming in copper and silver to make sculptures that reference and include seaweed within them. She makes and sells her work through her business, Tang.
Anne Magnus-Bennett is jewellery-maker and the tenant rep for The Steeple. She makes work from her studio in Wasps that’s inspired by nature and Scottish history.
Janice Deary is originally from South Africa, and has made Scotland her home. A tenant at The Steeple, Janice recently completed her MFA at DJCAD, and will be exhibiting in Patriothall next year.
If you’d like to visit The Steeple or find out more about renting a studio, click here or contact lettings@waspsstudios.org.uk.
