​Outpost Arts was founded in 2018 by a small group of enthusiastic, creative-minded individuals with a keen interest in building sustainable focal points for art-related activity in the Esk Valley. The group quickly gained charitable status, delivering a range of projects that engaged with local communities.

 Outpost Arts has since worked consistently to identify partners - plugging into existing networks, developing relationships and forging connections in order to create new opportunities for future work and for the development of our organisation.

Since the pandemic, OutPost Arts has prioritised its creative health and wellbeing work, forming new cross-sector alliances to develop impactful arts programmes that benefit people and communities across Dumfries & Galloway who experience barriers and inequalities.

You can find out more about our creative health and wellbeing project 'DG Creative Wellbeing' - HERE

MEET OUR core TEAM & board

LUCY MACLEOD
Creative Health & Wellbeing Director
​An Illustrator, Artist and Educator for almost two decades, Lucy has created visuals for a huge variety of clients, exhibited internationally and taught at Universities and Colleges across the UK. After moving from Edinburgh to Langholm in 2012, Lucy co-founded OutPost Arts in 2018 with a vision to enhance opportunities for rural artists & makers and increase access to creative and cultural activities for local  communities. Lucy has driven forward OutPost Arts' vision to establish sustainable creative wellbeing initiatives and platforms in D&G, project managing an impactful research and development project in 2021/22, then orchestrating the development and delivery of the resulting 'DG Creative Wellbeing' project.
DIANE HAY
Admin & Finance Manager
Diane (Di) joined OPA in February 2023 but has been involved with them since 2020, taking part in the pilot Art Journal Project having just suffered a personal grief/trauma, helping her mindset enormously.
​
Di's job is split into two parts; the first being Admin - mainly working in the background, dealing with the day-to-day operation across all three strands of OPA.
The second being the financial record keeping of the accounts and budget oversight.
CARYS MAINSPRIZE
Chair
​JASON RAILTON
Secretary
SHEILA SADLER
Treasurer
Carys has been an essential part of the OPA crew since 2019, previously working for Langholm Initiative’s Wild Eskdale project as a Project Officer. Currently an Education & Communication Officer for Crichton Carbon Centre, Carys has a long-standing passion for creative writing and storytelling, writing articles, stories and essays for various publications. She is most happy when gardening, preserving, clothes-making and being in nature.
Former Chair Jason Railton is a founding member of OutPost Arts, playing a crucial role in it's growth over the past 4+ years. A Development Officer with SCVO, Jason has worked across a number of successful projects focused on community skills development and challenging rural poverty. Jason is on a perpetual search for the perfect cup of coffee.
Sheila is Langholm born and bred and works for a local company as an Accounts Administrator. Sheila has previous experience working in education, supporting neuro-diverse children. Her passions are her family, dog-walking, loud music, live music and ‘bad singing & dancing’. Sheila participated in Art Journal Project in 2020 which allowed her to re-connect with creativity, and is developing a creative business with her twin sister as a result.