MOST of Scotland’s leading contemporary artists have passed through the doors of the Glasgow School of Art’s main campuses in the city centre over the years.

Now the GSA has designs on the north-east of Scotland after opening a new centre of excellence in a 19th-century A-listed Italianate farm steading in Moray.

The buildings set amid the beauty of the 12,000-acre Altyre estate, near Forres in the Highlands will house the GSA’s Highlands and Islands Creative Campus, a research and postgraduate teaching centre for international excellence in creativity and innovation.

It has been rejuvenated in a £2.5 million project, providing opportunities for future generations of students.

The college, which already has an outpost in Singapore, restored the empty Blairs Steading into modern art studios and learning spaces with funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Historic Environment Scotland.

The launch yesterday took place during one of the highlights of the GSA’s calendar – Winter School. It sees leading international design experts, researchers and students come together to explore a theme rooted in the local context, but with global resonances.

The students and visiting academics were joined at the launch by local politicians, businesses and community leaders at the launch.

Directors say it will be a research and postgraduate teaching centre for international excellence in creativity and innovation.

Professor Tom Inns, GSA’s director, said: “The GSA is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s leading university-level institutions for the creative disciplines.

“Our new Highlands and Islands Creative Campus brings the GSA’s world-leading research and teaching to the region.

“These state-of-the-art premises will enable the GSA to expand and develop its presence in the Highlands and Islands, building on the work done to date from our former home at Horizon Scotland.”

The three largest buildings have now been transformed into a modern campus with interconnected spaces, which include light and airy, state of the art studios for the research staff and postgraduate students.

There are also teaching areas with high-tech, high-spec equipment, and a large, flexible exhibition/project space. It has superfast broadband which provides good telecommunications links to both into the main GSA’s Glasgow and Singapore campuses and with partners across the globe.

It is home to the Institute of Design Innovation (InDI), which is one of the Glasgow School of Art’s world-leading research centres alongside the Mackintosh Environmental Research Unit, Urban Lab and the School of Simulation and Visualisation (formerly the Digital Design Studio).

Two significant research programmes led by InDI are the Experience Labs, GSA’s in contribution to the Digital Health and Care Institute and the Creative Futures Partnership, a pioneering collaboration between the GSA and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. For further details of the research projects currently being undertaken in InDI see Notes for Editors.

Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam, deputy director (innovation) of the GSA and director of the Highlands and Islands Campus, added: “It is a great pleasure to officially open our new campus. The GSA’s Institute of Design Innovation has been based in the Highlands and Islands for several years and today marks the beginning of a new era.”