The Spirit of Creation. Glenfiddich puts artists to work at its distillery.

There are very few companies throughout the beverage world that would say they don’t support the arts, whether it be through contributions to museums or sponsorship of cultural events.  But it’s a rare occurrence when a company actually turns its property into a working artists’ studio for a summer. 

The Glenfiddich’s Artists in Residence program will enter its fifth season this summer when a carefully selected group of international artists again will grace the grounds of the venerable Scotch brand’s distillery on the outskirts of Dufftown, Scotland, U.K.

For about three months each summer, Glenfiddich hosts eight visual artists from around the world who live in cottages on the distillery’s land and interact with company representatives and the local community.

In addition to living quarters, each participant gets a stipend of about 1,500 British pounds (US $2,600) per month, paid travel and art materials.  All that the distillery asks in return is that they create something while there.

“We do not tell them what they should produce,” notes Peter Gordon, the great-great-great-grandson of William Grant, founder of Glenfiddich distillery owner William Grant & Sons.  “All that we say is if they do not produce anything, they should leave a piece of work that persuaded us to choose them in the first place.  But basically since everyone is an artist, they can’t stop themselves.”

The program stemmed from William Grant & Sons’ long history of artistic involvement, such as its sponsorship of Scotland’s World Pipe Band Championship for the past 35 years.

“We have always been very strong supporters of cultural activities.” Gordon continues.  “But this is the first time we have said, ‘We have a distillery that’s 125 years old and we’re perfectly comfortable with it.  Let’s ask the eyes of today to take a look at us and tell us what they see.’  And that’s been fascinating for us because we’re a sort of old company and we’ve got a lot of people who’ve been here for many, many years and we forget, in a way, what the place looks like because we see it every day.  It works.”

Artists have tackled all sorts of issues in their finished products, using what Gordon calls the “whisky language.”

“Some are very sort of straight-line explainable and others decided to pick up on some of the very esoteric elements of Scotch whisky manufacturing,” he explains.

At the end of their stay, they convene with the distillery’s on-staff curator to decide which pieces of work they’ll leave behind.  They’re all put to good use jazzing up the common areas in the distillery and giving tourists both eye candy and a cultural experience when they visit the facility.

“We’ve had [the distillery] open for visitors for 35 to 40 years and there’d been the feeling that the place had been getting a bit tired,” Gordon recalls.  “[The CEO] asked me to come up with something to inject a little color into the place.”

The distillery last summer welcomed the first American artist into the program.  Warren Neidich, originally from New York City but now based in London, found the experience to be a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of his regular urban setting.

“It is essential that artists have a chance to do this kind of investigation away from the spotlight, in the quiet and thoughtful environment that a place like Scotland provides,” Neidich notes.

He adds that it was the company’s “intense and unselfish” commitment to the fine arts that really enabled him to spread his wings artistically.“When an artist wants or needs to stretch the boundaries of what is acceptable, you need that kind of commitment,” he says.  “Everyone knows and accepts a painting as a work of art.  It is embedded in our historical reference frame of what art is and what art can be.”

He adds that he’d definitely recommend the Scottish experience to others in the art world, but, he laughs, “Vegetarians and teetotalers beware.”

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