It was oh so quiet and peaceful, until...

When I arrived at craftscotland HQ on my very first day, I thought it would be a great idea to write a blog tracking my experiences as the first Chief Executive of craftscotland, building upon the history of the project whilst leading a new organisation forward. Almost nine months later and here we are - it's been quite a gestation period!

My first day was quite a culture shock. Coming from Arts About Manchester, which I had previously thought of as a small organisation with only 17 staff to its name, it was a strange experience to be the first member of staff through the craftscotland door. As a Scottish Arts Council project we were guided first by James Coutts and most recently, Tina Rose. Both did an outstanding job considering they were on freelance contracts, without office space and little resource. I was aware from the outset that I had inherited a strange concoction of brand new organisation (independent from Scottish Arts Council whilst still being core funded by them) and five year old project with all the things that comes attached with that. I look forward to the time when I can reflect back to those early days when I was alone in the office planning our strategy and deciding how to set about building a team. We're right in the thick of this expansion at the moment.

Over the first set of blog entries I will bring you up to speed with some of the things I have been up to, whilst trying to get us up to the present day as quickly as possible. I'm pleased to say that five weeks after I arrived, we recruited Charlie Gilhooley to the post of Business Administrator. Charlie will be guest blogging from time to time.

Bye for now,

Emma