GSA has developed a strategic Creative Futures Partnership (CfP) with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to work together to help transform the region, enhancing GSA’s reputation as a centre of excellence in creative research and practice. Innovation from Tradition is a programme of work in the CfP portfolio that researches the role innovation can play in renewing traditional practices and industries, and in so doing, contribute to the cultural and creative economy of the H&I region.

Innovation from Tradition utilised design-led approaches to promote the creation of innovative business ideas, processes and models. Through engaging with the craft practices of making and the materiality of design tools as artefacts, the project encouraged creative engagement and provided space for innovation practices towards enhancing and sustaining the creative economy in non-urban geographies. Focusing on Scotland’s northern isles (the archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland), the Innovation from Tradition workshops were delivered in partnership with HIE.

‍